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costard

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Posts posted by costard

  1. Feel free to modify as you see fit. My HD died last weekend and with it went everything I worked on and/or saved for the last 4 years. Those scenarios are now yours.

    Disaster! I've enjoyed your efforts hugely Kingfish, are you planning on rebuilding the rig so you can keep on with the work?

  2. I claim that current English spelling is often arbitrary, complicated, confusing and a factor in literacy problems, and that we would all be better off if it were simplified.

    But I guess that's a leap of logic too far for many.

    It's amazing how it's such an untouchable institution.

    Spelling is a factor in literacy problems, yes. I'm not sure that literacy problems can be helped by relaxing the vigour with which a word holds onto it's physical structure. I'd intuit that a person trying to address their literacy problem is less likely to be helped by the inconstant spelling of a word than by the lowering of the standard by which literacy is judged.

    As for arbitrary spelling - a language doesn't appear fully developed, it is unreasonable to expect it not to change in the course of time. Arbitrary rules are the greater part of the foundation of our society. Complicated - the task is to make a vocabulary out of combinations of 26 letters, then have the various taxonomic sets within relate to each other in the same way that objects relate to each other in the physical universe - i.e develop with the changes in perception and understanding of the users of the vocabulary.

    Confusing - well, to an illiterate, yes.

  3. lol

    Seems he does a pretty good job.

    ramble

    A discipline of mind that lends itself to exercise, in the maintenance and husbanding of its command of a language, can be better relied upon to deliver the right facts, perhaps even in a timely manner. This practice lends itself to efficient communication, and the ability to deliver a significant amount of information to another individual. Whether this information is communicated depends to a large degree on the individuals' shared understanding of the language.

    It could be postulated that the simplicity of such mind training - the development of memory and recall - is a foundation for specialised modes of thought: synthesis, problem solution, ideas even.

    end ramble

  4. Sure Jon - but is perfection in the use of language a desirable, or even possible thing? Can you, for example, claim such a degree of correctness? So, to some extent, it doesn't matter?

    As for understanding the post - I'm not sure it can be understood. So, no, I don't understand what he said, let alone what he meant to say. Rule of best approximation plus an enormous load of baggage (including consciously held bigotries and bias) leads me to believe...

    I find misspelt missives to be a pain to read - literally. Bad prose does the same - stop, stumble, what? Clever can take you through, but it's engagement and my brain's processes (as far as "I" can experience them) that keep me reading.

  5. Beats me how you can write five articles about... nothing. It reads like he's had one too many of the drugs that makes you feel paranoid.

    The flip side is - big deal. Let's see, stock market movements: India (large movement), some resource companies with uranium production under licence. If those are the main movements, then Bilderberg is a long way away from it's takeover strategy, and has suffered from some remarkably incompetent tactical direction lately. Unless they severed some heads, we can expect more of the same. No worries.

  6. If we're looking for fictional conflicts, how about Russia and China teaming up to take Alaska and Western Canada? The Battle of the Bering. You tie in Arctic sea-floor sovereignty (so you get parts, but not all, of Europe involved), reasonable supply lines for all parties (the weather is crap, but same for everybody) and significant resources as spoils. Start with the Europeans being mightily pissed at having been kicked out of the Far-East oilfields (Yukos and BP). Japan would have to go neutral (just as likely as China and Russia getting together for the op.) - it'd be a big war.

  7. How about (modern) pictographic languages? I'm guessing a misplaced penstroke lends an entirely different meaning to a word.

    French is a great language and the endings aren't too hard to deal with; you just have to make sure your verbs agree with your nouns and your tenses are consistent. Here's a tip: study Latin.

  8. Command radius seems to have some sort of sound modeling involved - or should have: a unit in voice contact with its commander isn't necessarily in LOS. Also, sound modeling is important for night / stealth missions: an infantry unit approaching a stationary (but not hidden) vehicle at night should be given some indication of approximate distance and angle to target. A unit waiting in ambush ought have the opportunity to effect surprise with good noise discipline.

    Effective surprise often relies on the use of stealth: I think BF is throwing away a chance at giving the game an aspect of realism that lends itself to a great immersive experience. That said, I'm sure its not easy to do. I thought CMx1 did a great job - to the extent of modeling a shift in the sound contact proportional to wind strength.

  9. I can't agree with you SO.

    A language that cannot be self-referenced for accuracy in provision of detail or in historical fact is not one that enables its user to predict. Without the ability to predict, we devolve to a simpler organism, one that cannot engineer. It is from the analysis of disciplined, recorded observation that we have come across rules - laws, mechanisms, whatever - that enable us to do what we do and have done (take a look around you right now and figure how much of the stuff in your immediate field of vision would exist without this ability). If the observations are recorded in such a fashion as to obscure their meaning, they are of little use to anyone and the reason for the language's existance (in written form) has been nullified. It then ceases to exist.

    The argument that spelling doesn't matter usually includes a caveat - commonly to do with "context" or "cultural understanding" or "corporate knowledge". If the caveat to my understanding is that I already understand, I don't understand why I'm reading what I'm reading, nor do I understand why the writer wrote it. And, again, the language conveys no meaning and might as well not exist.:P

  10. It might be that the support is limited more by barrel cooling characteristics and opportunities: I know that even on a rifle range with quite long (relatively speaking) time periods between shots the barrel of a single shot bolt-action rifle can heat up to the point where the dispersion of shot is affected. Of course, a target rifle has a heavy barrel compared to a general issue unit and won't cool as rapidly. Overheated brass can jam in the chamber, overpressured (and thereby deformed) brass can do the same. You can even get rounds "cooking off" if the chamber is too hot - an unexpected unpleasantness and excellent reason for care with where you point a rifle.

  11. costard, thanks for mentioning "dynamic flags"; I never thought of that, I'll try that tonight, FWIW. Force balance I don't mind, but the Exp Bonus can be annoying. At least for me, there is nothing more aggravating than trying to get my green/conscripts to advance against crack units... Talk about blood pressure!

    Sure can be more than a challenge. Command in depth to catch the runaways is fine, but they still won't get back to the front and fight.

    Actually, I wasn't referring to the experience bonus but the Axis Bonus in the parameters screen - you can give the Axis a number of points (including negative, I think, maybe) to count towards the final score. JasonC did this well with his last lot of "unfair" scenarios: as the Germans you have an overwhelming advantage in the forces supplied, but if you don't use them correctly and take too many casualties you won't do better than a draw, even if you wipe out the Russians to the last man - they end up with points even if they don't take out a single German.

    In a QB scenario you could use this to make sure that you couldn't possibly get 100%.

    Cheers.

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