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[Kuchigakatai]

Creče lebe zon? What does that mean and how does it show that delaying something is sometimes worth it?

[Pabappa]

Today my phone went from 93% to 100% battery without being plugged into anything ... I was just holding it in my hand. While it made me smile, I suspect its actually a bad thing and that the battery might be nearing the end of its life, as this phone is a few years old and I use it a lot.

[Arkasas]

Creče lebe zon? What does that mean and how does it show that delaying something is sometimes worth it?

It means Happy New Year in Verdurian, which I should hope is fairly self-explanatory.

[Pabappa]

Has anyone used DAZ 3D modeling software? is it nice? is it easy to use? My avatars are all from a 3D modeling program called Milkshape, but I havent used it in years and the developer doesnt seem to be maintaining it so Im not sure its going to work on future computers.

[rotting bones]

I've only ever used Blender.

Someone made me take Mensa's online sample test recently. It said I'd probably qualify. I might be interested in joining if Mensa is the closest thing to a club for puzzle solvers. I don't remember seeing a club that's explicitly dedicated to puzzle solving. Does anyone know anything about this?

Edit: On the other hand, I would not be interested if Mensa is full of, you know, only these types of people: https://youtu.be/UBc7qBS1Ujo

[Pabappa]

My parents bought me some Mensa-related puzzle books as a kid and I really enjoyed them. I went looking around online recently, figuring the same sort of things might be available online for free now, but I don't see quite the same skill required that I remember from the books. of course, I was younger then, and my mind might not have been that sharp. Also, I seem to have only ever been good at a certain subset of puzzle ... e.g. the puzzles on https://www.mensa.org.uk/puzzles/brainteasers?page=1 are mostly beyond me. but I did really good at a game called Mindtrap where there was less math and more logic.

[Vijay]

Oh, I have Mindtrap right here in my room.

[rotting bones]

Pabappa: Yeah, I usually solve puzzles like Calcudoku and Futoshiki. The pure logic problem #605 was much easier for me than the "anagram sandwiched between synonyms" genre. I also had an easier time with the visual sequences and analogies on the practice test. From what I understand, I won't usually get five minutes to sit and ponder on one question in a test environment.

Vijay: I had to look up that game. Are you proposing an online match?

[Ryusenshi]

When watching Canadian videos, I understand the Anglophones better than the Francophones.

[Vijay]

Vijay: I had to look up that game. Are you proposing an online match?

I think someone gave it to me as a Christmas present once, but I never actually got to play it because no one wanted to play it with me. My brother felt it was too dumb.

[rotting bones]

No one wants to play the WFF 'N PROOF board game with me. I couldn't even make my mom understand it, so we played another weird one I dug up called Triangoli. I am open to online games. Just saying.

When I was going to Aizawl, our driver claimed to be a Bengali man who lived in Assam. I couldn't understand over half the things he said. He may have been from Bangladesh, but I have no problem understanding the mainstream Bangal accent.

[Kuchigakatai]

Whoaaaaa

We're in 2020 now? I swear I didn't feel 2019 passing by. Are you guys sure that year happened at all?

I'm thinking of making it not count.

[Vijay]

I am open to online games. Just saying.

I honestly haven't played one in years.

When I was going to Aizawl, our driver claimed to be a Bengali man who lived in Assam. I couldn't understand over half the things he said. He may have been from Bangladesh, but I have no problem understanding the mainstream Bangal accent.

Out of curiosity, do you think you can understand the woman named Hasitun Nissa in this clip?

[rotting bones]

I expect that to be perfectly intelligible to speakers of the prestige dialect, especially if they have been exposed to it before. The only problem is that, similar to the English spoken by Youtuber Beau of the Fifth Column, it may be prejudicially associated with lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder by some people in Kolkata (and maybe eIsewhere).

I once heard a poem deliberately read with this accent on YouTube. It was about a poor, uneducated girl with dark skin who was married by a social worker without a dowry because that was the virtuous thing to do. Later, when the social worker falls on hard times, he tries to drown her and marry someone else. The poem was in the first person with the poor, uneducated girl as the narrator. Unfortunately, the channel doesn't seem to exist anymore. As expected given the theme of virtue signalling, there are dozens of poems and short films about girls with dark skin being mistreated.

I suspect the driver was speaking a dialect on the spectrum between Bengali and Assamese.

[rotting bones]

Is this the most progressive Muslim group in North America? https://www.youtube.com/user/ProgressiveMuslims

[Ryusenshi]

I've heard that people who started programming with Java (where everything has to be an object) have the opposite problem when using another language: they tend to make new classes everywhere, even when it's not particularly appropriate.

The matter with Java programmers is probably an example of "if the only tool one has is a hammer, all problems will look like nails".

I saw an instance of Java-itis the other day. As part of a hiring process, I had to take a test in C++. Several questions asked me to write an "Answer" class with one single method, and no property whatsoever. Which means it could easily have been a simple function. Why make it a class, then??

[Kuchigakatai]

I just read that essay by Borges where he mentions a hilarious "Chinese" (read: exotic) classification of animals with 14 weird main categories like "those belonging to the Emperor", "embalmed ones", "stray dogs" and "those that tremble like mad". I had heard about this essay many times, and only because of this 14-item list. The English and Spanish Wikipedia pages also discuss the list and little else.

The essay was a response to John Wilkins' philosophical conlang, from the 17th century. Wikipedia mentions this, but I was surprised that the weird animal classification actually seems like a rhetorical device to criticize a (probably real!?) system used by a bibliographical institute in Belgium, which he finds chaotic and biased.

I also liked it when he mentions he thinks that in a language with a divine scheme of the universe, you wouldn't just get a classification of an object inside the universe, but the details of the object's "fate", namely its past and future. It reminded me of Tolkien's Ent language, which is supposedly long-winded because to be able to use a single concept in a sentnece the entire knowledge about that concept must be discussed. A named sword is not just a particular sword but its entire known history.

I added some of this to the English Wikipedia page, to see if it stays there... The essay is about more than the fun 14-item list anyway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial ... _Knowledge

[Travis B.]

I've heard that people who started programming with Java (where everything has to be an object) have the opposite problem when using another language: they tend to make new classes everywhere, even when it's not particularly appropriate.

The matter with Java programmers is probably an example of "if the only tool one has is a hammer, all problems will look like nails".

I saw an instance of Java-itis the other day. As part of a hiring process, I had to take a test in C++. Several questions asked me to write an "Answer" class with one single method, and no property whatsoever. Which means it could easily have been a simple function. Why make it a class, then??

I am so glad that my current job, even though it is a Java/JavaScript shop, is not afflicted with design pattern-itis as many Java environments are, thank gawd.

[mèþru]

It's been a few months since I've been here. What's new? I am not reading all 50+ notifications.

[rotting bones]

Do what I do and read the last few posts. On the internet, there is no power stronger than ignorance.