Should Be 2013-02-07

[Yamara]

Why does Atsali have her hand out? Don't tell me Miss Adventure (heh!) doesn't carry some kind of fire starter?

(Always in a pocket or bag: pocketknife with tools; lighter; compass; small notebook; pencil. If you don't normally carry one anyway, disposable cell with minutes card; if you have a little room: water bottle; hard candy; flashlight)

And if you might be going cross-time: formula for gunpowder; spare dilithium crystal/beryllium sphere.

Hmm...that's not the order of priority I'd give things in my adventure pack. Especially not when I'm planning on exiting The Library somewhere near Mesa Verde. Water bottle trumps cell phone (aren't they looking into the Dead Zone anyhow).

Water bottle is always a first. Dessicated adventurers can't create good tools (though they can be sources of parts on occasion!)

Also, there's almost no reason not to carry some form of small led light with you: image search link - These keychain models are flat, weigh nothing, are very bright, and cheaper than batteries. Button doesn't lock, so you have to hold it, but that can be more a feature than a bug.

Why doesn't Atsali have a keychain led flashlight!? This is 2013!! ***SUSPICIOUS!***

[Dave]

I like snakes (I'm aware that this makes me weird in many people's opinions). I can't say I've smelled a nest of them though, so that little tidbit is good to know.

On several occasions I had the pleasure of wandering around the stacks and shelves of A Change Of Hobbit in Santa Monica CA, checking out new SF/fantasy books, with the owner's 6' boa constrictor Wrinklesnakeskin comfortably draped across my shoulders. Wrink would usually be stretching upwards and forwards, tongue-smelling the books as I was reading the covers and spines to see what was new.

I can't recall his window-cage having an acidic odor, but I'm sure it was kept quite clean.

[RunningBull]

While we are discussing flashlights, and I agree she should have at least one in her purse with - wait why is she not carrying a purse? I know my wife carries everything you would need in an emergency in hers.

[TheDOCTOR]

Yup, I think Katherine is standing on a snake and the acidic smell could mean lots of 'em.
Also maybe I'm a little thick but whats all this then about Little white houses and twisted tunnels? Is this some sort of Dungeons/Dragons referance? My brother tried to teach me the game in '85. Didn't get it.

[Atomic]

Yup, I think Katherine is standing on a snake and the acidic smell could mean lots of 'em.
Also maybe I'm a little thick but whats all this then about Little white houses and twisted tunnels? Is this some sort of Dungeons/Dragons referance? My brother tried to teach me the game in '85. Didn't get it.

The Little White House line is the opening from the classic text adventure game, Zork.

The Twisty Passages line is from it's ancestor, Colossal Cave Adventure.

Zork, once you figured out how to get into the house, led you on a merry adventure through the Great Underground Empire.

Colossal Cave, also a text only adventure, was famous for it's maze, in which the only clue was "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike." The trick was, the exact wording of that phrase changed slightly as you went from room to room. That was the clue to make a map of it.

[bmonk]

BTW, re all the comparisons to the minuscule computing power of Apollo and the ilk - your smart phone continues to have much more power than even the current space traveling computers. The technology that goes to space today, especially long distance missions such as Curiosity, is typically ten or more years old. Everything has to be shielded and space hardened to withstand the rigors of cosmic rays, temperature extremes and other hazards and then tested and retested and retested. That takes time.

Yes--and the reason is that it's awfully hard to take a broken satellite back to the store for a refund/replacement, of course. If your phone quits or you drop it, it's not such a problem to replace.

[ChattaStarhawk]

Character in one of my brother's "Honor Harrington" books:

I'm not all that fond of battle plans that include the words "should" and "probably."

Honor would do quite well I'm thinking. With her tree-cat familiar on her shoulder - dis integrator in her shoulder holster - and her personal shield ready to activate .

Personal weapons in the Honorverse are various slug-throwers (top end weapons use grav-fields to fire) and shields are limited to spacecraft (and not all of them... size limitations).

OTOH, her personal psi, hand-to-hand and tactical skills, along with Nimitz's, would certainly aid these two greenhorns.

[Fairportfan]

Also maybe I'm a little thick but whats all this then about Little white houses and twisted tunnels? Is this some sort of Dungeons/Dragons referance? My brother tried to teach me the game in '85. Didn't get it.

The Wikipedia article on Infocom has info about the company and its games.

I posted a link to an online-playable version of their Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game the other day, but apparently it's either broken, or you have to have Java enabled to play it, because all i'm getting is a "zmachine invalid" error. ("zmachine" was the engine/parser that drove Infocom games.)

EDIT: If you're interested, the games can be found online easily enough * cough * BitTorrent * cough *...

[NOTDilbert]

Why does Atsali have her hand out? Don't tell me Miss Adventure (heh!) doesn't carry some kind of fire starter?

(Always in a pocket or bag: pocketknife with tools; lighter; compass; small notebook; pencil. If you don't normally carry one anyway, disposable cell with minutes card; if you have a little room: water bottle; hard candy; flashlight)

And if you might be going cross-time: formula for gunpowder; spare dilithium crystal/beryllium sphere.

Hmm...that's not the order of priority I'd give things in my adventure pack. Especially not when I'm planning on exiting The Library somewhere near Mesa Verde. Water bottle trumps cell phone (aren't they looking into the Dead Zone anyhow).

Water bottle is always a first. Dessicated adventurers can't create good tools (though they can be sources of parts on occasion!)

Also, there's almost no reason not to carry some form of small led light with you: image search link - These keychain models are flat, weigh nothing, are very bright, and cheaper than batteries. Button doesn't lock, so you have to hold it, but that can be more a feature than a bug.

Why doesn't Atsali have a keychain led flashlight!? This is 2013!! ***SUSPICIOUS!***

I was thinking more generally - and yes, water bottle needs to be up towards the top of the list. My pocket flash is a 3-AAA LED Mini-Mag lite, and is bright enough to blind, has a battery-saving low power (30 %) setting, and can strobe several times a second.

[DilyV]

Why does Atsali have her hand out? Don't tell me Miss Adventure (heh!) doesn't carry some kind of fire starter?

(Always in a pocket or bag: pocketknife with tools; lighter; compass; small notebook; pencil. If you don't normally carry one anyway, disposable cell with minutes card; if you have a little room: water bottle; hard candy; flashlight)

And if you might be going cross-time: formula for gunpowder; spare dilithium crystal/beryllium sphere.


(drops a couple Hershey's Tropical Chocolate bars in the Pun Jar)

Hershey's Tropical Chocolate Bars??? Good God Man!!! Those got their start in WWII and were used at least up until the 70s in the Apollo Moon Mission Survival kits... I have a friend who does WWII Living History Displays who insists on filling me full of useless tidbits like that... then I run into your remark... heh... not so useless as I thought!!!! Now I feel smart!! Be glad they weren't D Ration bars... the pun jar may have thrown them back at you!

Love the Star Trek Reference from the Gorn Episode!!!

[DilyV]

I like snakes (I'm aware that this makes me weird in many people's opinions). I can't say I've smelled a nest of them though, so that little tidbit is good to know.

On several occasions I had the pleasure of wandering around the stacks and shelves of A Change Of Hobbit in Santa Monica CA, checking out new SF/fantasy books, with the owner's 6' boa constrictor Wrinklesnakeskin comfortably draped across my shoulders. Wrink would usually be stretching upwards and forwards, tongue-smelling the books as I was reading the covers and spines to see what was new.

I can't recall his window-cage having an acidic odor, but I'm sure it was kept quite clean.

A single snake in captivity you might not notice, especially when the owner cleans the cage/aquarium often. In the Mojave Desert in California my unit once pulled into an area at night to set up Bivouac... you could smell something definitely acidic and pungent smelling... We kept hearing this buzzing noise and some kept saying something was tapping at their boots and legs. A quick look around with a flashilght revealed hundreds of baby rattle snakes. The ground literally moved. We also noticed numerous larger ones as well... we'd pulled into their nesting area. The tapping was the babies striking at the intruding boots and legs into their territory. The buzzing noise was the sound made by their immature rattles. Needless to say, we relocated but the experience was not one I'd want to relive.

[jeffepp]

or you have to have Java enabled to play it,

That would be it. Zmachine in a browser requires Java.

[Fairportfan]

or you have to have Java enabled to play it,

That would be it. Zmachine in a browser requires Java.

Wasn't sure.

I have winfrotz on this machine, and all of the games.

[Dave]

or you have to have Java enabled to play it,

That would be it. Zmachine in a browser requires Java.

You are surfing through a maze of twisty little malwarez, all different.

Suddenly, a cyberpirate drives by from out of the darkness behind you. "Har har!" he sneers, "I'll just take all of these login credentials back to my lair in the CB3ROB!" He grabs the cookies away from you and vanishes into the darkness.

[Opus the Poet]

You are surfing through a maze of twisty little malwarez, all different.

Suddenly, a cyberpirate drives by from out of the darkness behind you. "Har har!" he sneers, "I'll just take all of these login credentials back to my lair in the CB3ROB!" He grabs the cookies away from you and vanishes into the darkness.

Someone has been playing Spambot http://leftoversoup.com/archive.php?num=50

[MerchManDan]

In the Mojave Desert in California my unit once pulled into an area at night to set up Bivouac... you could smell something definitely acidic and pungent smelling... We kept hearing this buzzing noise and some kept saying something was tapping at their boots and legs. A quick look around with a flashilght revealed hundreds of baby rattle snakes. The ground literally moved. We also noticed numerous larger ones as well... we'd pulled into their nesting area. The tapping was the babies striking at the intruding boots and legs into their territory. The buzzing noise was the sound made by their immature rattles. Needless to say, we relocated but the experience was not one I'd want to relive.

That is simultaneously the coolest and most terrifying story I've read for a long time.

You are surfing through a maze of twisty little malwarez, all different.

Suddenly, a cyberpirate drives by from out of the darkness behind you. "Har har!" he sneers, "I'll just take all of these login credentials back to my lair in the CB3ROB!" He grabs the cookies away from you and vanishes into the darkness.

...and now I feel like watching ReBoot.