6031
General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Going to be Away?
« on: August 06, 2014, 09:32:21 PM »
Fortunately not: Germany has good beer, schnitzel and strudel, and I doubt I'd find any of these in Mordor.
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6032
General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Going to be Away?
« on: August 06, 2014, 08:03:38 PM »Geez, Glaury, you sure do get around.One tries. Angband, Anfauglith, Tumhalad, Nargothrond, Brethil - and now Germany.
6033
History, Science, and Interesting Information - The Great Library / Re: Which part of science interests you the most?
« on: August 06, 2014, 06:48:23 PM »You people sicken me.Do I sense there may be another, unwritten, law of Wibulnubniblia: "no maths allowed"?
6034
General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Going to be Away?
« on: August 06, 2014, 06:36:39 PM »
Merely a tactical withdrawal, I assure you. I will return soon with my hypnotic stare and my army of city-sacking orcs. Mwahahaha! 
Yes, thank you. I'm looking forward to my holiday, and to coming back.
Yes, thank you. I'm looking forward to my holiday, and to coming back.
6035
The Welcome Hall - Start Here! / Re: Greetings, Exilioi!
« on: August 06, 2014, 08:00:30 AM »Child!Hello, mum
Welcome to ExilianMany thanks, and thank you also to Othko97. I'm enjoying being here.
6036
Announcements! The Town Crier! / Re: ExiliCon - The Aftermath
« on: August 06, 2014, 07:49:32 AM »
I would suggest that the date of a winter ExiliCon in Manchester should be chosen with some care.
First, it probably should be after the middle of February, to try to avoid problems with the weather (snow, storms, etc.).
Second, if (and it's quite a big if) you want the convention to be a "shop window" for Exilian, I think it needs to be before the end of university term time. Manchester has many thousands of students, which probably translates to at least some hundreds interested in the things Exilian does. There are probably RPG and other games societies that would be willing to advertise a convention to their members.
First, it probably should be after the middle of February, to try to avoid problems with the weather (snow, storms, etc.).
Second, if (and it's quite a big if) you want the convention to be a "shop window" for Exilian, I think it needs to be before the end of university term time. Manchester has many thousands of students, which probably translates to at least some hundreds interested in the things Exilian does. There are probably RPG and other games societies that would be willing to advertise a convention to their members.
6037
History, Science, and Interesting Information - The Great Library / Re: Partitions of Numbers
« on: August 05, 2014, 07:23:30 PM »
Interesting - thanks for posting this. I played with this briefly, and then decided to read about it instead. Hopefully the Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_(number_theory)) is all true.
Two particular points that surprised me:
Two particular points that surprised me:
- There's no recurrence formula for getting a partition number simply from the previous one or previous several.
- This area is related to pentagonal numbers (1, 5, 12, ...)
6038
General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Going to be Away?
« on: August 05, 2014, 07:59:20 AM »
It seems a bit strange that to say that I will be away for a while so soon after joining; nevertheless, that's what's happening. I will be on holiday from Saturday 9th to Monday 18th inclusive, meandering around Germany and neighbouring countries by train. For some engineering quirkiness, there is a good chance that this will involve at least one, possibly two, train ferry crossings.
Also, I still need to do quite a lot of organising (route planning and hotel booking, mainly), so I probably won't be terribly active here for the next few days either.
Also, I still need to do quite a lot of organising (route planning and hotel booking, mainly), so I probably won't be terribly active here for the next few days either.
6039
History, Science, and Interesting Information - The Great Library / Re: Which part of science interests you the most?
« on: August 05, 2014, 12:02:03 AM »
I think it's quite possible to understand the principle of Gödel's argument without necessarily using all the conventional mathematical apparatus. You might like to find a copy of Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter - it was popular in the 1980s, and I think an anniversary edition was published quite recently. Hofstadter summarises the basic ideas in a page or two fairly early in the book, then builds up his own apparatus to enable a more detailed exploration (somewhat more intuitive than rigorous) later on.
I agree that the interconnectedness of maths is an important part of its beauty. The polytopes I mentioned are a good example: they are geometrical objects (polygons, polyhedra and so on), but their symmetry properties are described by group theory, and the standard book on the subject draws in elements from a wide range of other areas.
I should also say I'm not a mathematician. I did maths up to A-level, and it was a minor element of my degree, but I haven't touched it in any formal way since then, and I'm sadly out of practice.
I agree that the interconnectedness of maths is an important part of its beauty. The polytopes I mentioned are a good example: they are geometrical objects (polygons, polyhedra and so on), but their symmetry properties are described by group theory, and the standard book on the subject draws in elements from a wide range of other areas.
I should also say I'm not a mathematician. I did maths up to A-level, and it was a minor element of my degree, but I haven't touched it in any formal way since then, and I'm sadly out of practice.
6040
The Welcome Hall - Start Here! / Re: Greetings, Exilioi!
« on: August 04, 2014, 11:05:14 PM »Welcome Glaurung!Thank you.
How does one manage to take 6 weeks off of work??By having an annual holiday allowance of 25 days (this is now quite common in the UK) and by working for a company that's willing to let me organise this sort of thing provided I give them plenty of warning - about a year in this case!
6041
The Welcome Hall - Start Here! / Re: Greetings, Exilioi!
« on: August 04, 2014, 08:26:06 PM »Anyway, welcome! We certainly hope you don't vanish.Many thanks - I hope I don't as well!
How bout instead of having it in north UK, you just bring it a bit further south down to Australia ;pIt can be done: the Tolkien Society (for Jubal's benefit, not the Cambridge one but the UK and international one) occasionally holds its annual "Seminar" in Australia instead of the UK. I went "down under" for the one in Sydney in 2007, and spent 6 weeks touring Australia and New Zealand. An antipodean Exilicon might just tempt me again...
6042
The Welcome Hall - Start Here! / Re: Greetings, Exilioi!
« on: August 04, 2014, 08:16:17 PM »Mark? Hi there, I was Rob maybe you saw me at the convention? Blue shirt, nerdy haircut, joking with cg most of the timeHi there. Yes, I am Mark - I guess comrade_general mentioned me last week. I did see you, and I recognise you from the photos on the Facebook page. I now wish I had introduced myself to you and others, but I wasn't very awake that afternoon (too hot!) and it takes me a while to "warm up" to people. Still, I will know for next time!
6043
History, Science, and Interesting Information - The Great Library / Re: Which part of science interests you the most?
« on: August 04, 2014, 07:56:12 PM »I'd like to spend more time getting to grips-ish with the current state of physics research, but it just seems impossible to know where to start with it.You might find Ethan Siegel's Starts With A Bang blog a good place. He's a cosmologist, posting at least 3-4 times a week on subjects in astronomy, astrophysics and particle physics. There's usually also a "Weekend Diversion" on something more worldly that interests or concerns him.
6044
History, Science, and Interesting Information - The Great Library / Re: Which part of science interests you the most?
« on: August 04, 2014, 07:24:50 PM »I prefer Maths. It's just so elegant,Indeed, and I rather feel that if it's not elegant, it's a sign that there's something we don't understand yet. The four colour problem must be a classic example: we surely ought to be able to do better than a brute-force enumeration of all the possible cases.
it's the only field that is definitively the truth.Though, as Gödel showed, some of it may not be provable.
6045
The Welcome Hall - Start Here! / Re: Greetings, Exilioi!
« on: August 03, 2014, 11:12:37 PM »
Thanks for the welcome. I'm hoping I can make a contribution here, though I'm not sure what it might be, as I'm not really into games. However, I'm a computer programmer who's interested in SF & fantasy, languages and history, so I hope I can add something to discussions.