Random Thread

[doctor shark]

Random: I had to explain to some coworkers what a lei is and the double-entendre of "getting lei'd". It's always funny when things "click" in their heads, though it's also sometimes hard to remember that they're not native speakers sometimes (especially here, as most Dutch people speak exceptionally good English).

[MacAnDàil]

Incidentally, I also notice that the medieval word "serf" is just the Old French descendant of Latin servus 'slave', and "servant" is related too, but I don't know what to make of that.

"servant" is ultimately from servire, be a slave.

Technically serfdom was an evolution of the late imperial colony system... Though evidently the people of Gaul in Late Antiquity didn't really see the difference with rural servitude.

An interesting question is why slavery was gradually abandoned during the Middle Ages.
It's not terribly clear. Answers to that question tend towards 'it really didn't' (technically true, but missing the point) or 'Christianity'. (Dubious. Christians don't necessarily see the problem with slavery, any more than other religions do, anyway. I seem to recall St Paul counseled resignation to slaves, anyway.)

I recall something about the Black Death reducing available labour, and so those left could choose their jobs more easily and have better working conditions.

[malloc]

Much to my pleasant surprise, I managed to fix my computer. Although the problems with it over the past few months make me wonder if there is something wrong with the hardware. Now I am trying to figure out why Disney+ (which honestly I only need to watch The Mandalorian) won't work on either my computer or television. Trying to login through the computer just shows a blank page, and the computer crashing and getting the OS reinstalled seems to have made no difference. Meanwhile trying on my television gives an error message about Disney+ not being available in my area, which hardly makes sense.

[Raphael]

My bathroom sink just made some kinda weird noises while the water drained from it after I had washed my hands. If it would still be Halloween today...

[Raphael]

What was up? The Board seems to have been down for several hours.

[zompist]

No idea. I had to chat with Bluehost, and they fixed it quickly, but didn't explain what they did.

The only thing they said was to keep the phpbb software up to date. Good advice, probably, but it's the same software, so that doesn't explain what went wrong or what the fix was.

[Raphael]

Thank you!

[Kuchigakatai]

Maybe someone accidentally, or in revenge, deleted the data in the server, and they had to recover it from a backup. Hey, it's happened before, at a major code repository no less.

[Ares Land]

To take your mind off actual horror, how about some nice conworlding horror instead?

Green Antarctica
Apparently there's also a thread going at AlternateHistory.com

The doc is about the size of a thick novel, and I must say that's some pretty neat conworlding they got going on.

The basic idea is that Antarctica never freezes over, and that it's a hellhole. The locals -- called Tsalal, after an Edgar Poe story survived incredibly harsh conditions by becoming sociopaths.
Cue 10,000 years of grand-guignol murder, rape and horror. Lots of Lovecraft and Bierce shout outs, of course.
Both Lovecraft and Hunter S. Thompson show up in-universe, one as an anthropologist of sorts, the other as a chupacabra venom addict.

There are quite a few moments where I went: damn, I should've thought of that first...
No conlangs that I know of (though it'd be tempting to provide one...)

A few complaints/warnings: 'disturbing' is hard to get right, and some bits get a bit old and repetitive after a while. It's still quite the disquieting read. (Trigger warnings: well, everything.)

[Pabappa]

do you mean that Antarctica was once habitable and the story is about it freezing over, or was that a mistake? I didnt read the whole document, just looked at the map and a bit of the intro.

[Man in Space]

To take your mind off actual horror, how about some nice conworlding horror instead?

Green Antarctica
Apparently there's also a thread going at AlternateHistory.com

The doc is about the size of a thick novel, and I must say that's some pretty neat conworlding they got going on.

The basic idea is that Antarctica freezes over, and that it's a hellhole. The locals -- called Tsalal, after an Edgar Poe story survived incredibly harsh conditions by becoming sociopaths.
Cue 10,000 years of grand-guignol murder, rape and horror. Lots of Lovecraft and Bierce shout outs, of course.
Both Lovecraft and Hunter S. Thompson show up in-universe, one as an anthropologist of sorts, the other as a chupacabra venom addict.

There are quite a few moments where I went: damn, I should've thought of that first...
No conlangs that I know of (though it'd be tempting to provide one...)

A few complaints/warnings: 'disturbing' is hard to get right, and some bits get a bit old and repetitive after a while. It's still quite the disquieting read. (Trigger warnings: well, everything.)

The Alternate History forums have some conlanging for it. I’m actually working on adapting the setting to D&D.

[Ares Land]

do you mean that Antarctica was once habitable and the story is about it freezing over, or was that a mistake? I didnt read the whole document, just looked at the map and a bit of the intro.

never freezes over, sorry.
Antarctica is habitable in that setting, but just barely.

[malloc]

Still no luck with logging into Disney+ despite a week of trying. Some experiments with my phone on mobile internet confirm that the problem is my internet connection and not the username or password. Yet nothing I have found online can explain why that would make a difference. They are not exactly incentivizing me to avoid piracy...

[Moose-tache]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but are you using a VPN?

[malloc]

No, nothing like that. I am using an ordinary internet connection that comes bundled with my cable. Don't know much else about it since it comes with my apartment rental.

[Richard W]

No, nothing like that. I am using an ordinary internet connection that comes bundled with my cable. Don't know much else about it since it comes with my apartment rental.

It may be worth checking your public IP address. Mine is assigned dynamically; normally it's reported as being in the right location, but on a couple of occasions it's been reported as being 124 miles away as the crow flies. I've had security alerts because of this. I've been following US links recently, and been denied access on the grounds of being in Europe.

[malloc]

According to the site identifying my location based on IP address, it looks pretty much correct. Another point is that while my TV says Disney+ is unavailable, my computer gives me a blank login page with the url http://disneyplus.com/en-gb/login. I assume the element "en-gb" refers to Great Britain so presumably it thinks I am accessing it from there for some reason. The exact same thing happens with both Chrome and Firefox so the browser is not the issue.

[Raphael]

I guess someone asked "what else could happen now?"

And Nature delivered:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54910098

[Linguoboy]

Speaking of Canada, this news made my whole damn week: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfound ... -1.5797069.

Acadians: We don't agree with how your exercising your treaty rights so we're going to burn your boats and threaten your lives.
Mi'kmaq: We just bought your employer. Checkmate, motherfuckers.

[Torco]

We have an infestation of moths here. I know, not exactly exciting, but they do love to attack your phone when you're looking at the time in the morning.