zompist bboard

Hi, people. Been a while. So, back in 2011 I bought a deck of Ganjifa cards from the Playing Card Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. For those who don't know, Ganjifa are the traditional playing cards of India. Prototypically they're circular rather than rectangular with eight suits and twelve ranks in e...

What kind of toasters are you people running where the usable window size is less than 600 pixels? Screen resolution 1280 x 720. The 21.5 inch monitor is capable of doubling that, but that makes everything too small and fidly (and intermediate settings aren't really an option with LCD monitors). Fr...

A comment regarding the 'Quick Links' on the sidebar: Javascript-powered links suck, because the user cannot choose to open them in a new tab (at least not in most browsers). All external links (e.g. to Almeopedia) should be implemented in HTML, giving me the power to right-click on them and choose ...

Just looking at it now. Been a long time since I looked at the old version, so I won't in any way try to compare. I'm guessing you designed it on a large monitor with lots and lots of room, and didn't test it on a more average monitor with a more average amount of room. Because at default zoom, the ...

I've finished! Just a couple of comments on the last few chapters. On pages 294/295, in the Maps chapter, the bit about drawing combined lobes on the computer isn't as clear as it could be. In the following quote, I've inserted extra words in square brackets that I think add clarity: "The middle top...

We're not talking about planets for which Mercury or Venus are useful as analogues. We're talking about something more like the earth with respect to the total amount of energy it receives from its star, but closer to the star because it's a smaller star. (Of course, whether it's unsuitable for a co...

Comments on the Religion chapter. Not all of these are criticisms. On page 193, the bullet point beginning "mental peace really helps" doesn't make sense to me, because "iPods, DVDs, mystery novels, TV, video games, and sleep pills" have very little to do with mental peace. There's lots of stuff I f...

Going back to the astronomy chapter for a moment, and Mark's opinion (page 41) that being tidally locked to a star would most likely destroy a planet's atmosphere, here's a reference that's more representative of what I hear from astronomers. This means one side of the planet is always experiencing ...

I've now finished both the History and Culture chapters. I have very little to say about the History chapter, except that the bit on pages 105-106 about software for making atlases seemed out of place. I would have stuck that at the end of the Maps chapter. Moving on to Culture, another thing that s...

Have finished biology chapter. Quick comments: Page 72, " Bipedalism developed when we left the trees of the savanna, and hunted by running after game. " True, provided we're careful to distinguish between "developed" and "began". I just think maybe the text could have made that distinction more exp...

Am reading biology chapter - comments later. Meanwhile, I got to thinking about what I would have done for the front cover picture, and what comes to mind looks, in a rough sketch, like this: http://outerhoard.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/pck_apm1.png I actually work in graphic design, but trust me, ...

One slightly sucky thing about a board divided into forums is that the divisions don't reflect how real conversation works. A discussion of the LCK fits most naturally into L&L (and sometimes C&C) and a discussion of the PCK fits most naturally into NOTA, but as far as I'm concerned the LCK and PCK ...

If you want to define "mainstream" as "what most people read", then genre fiction is mainstream fiction. The most read fiction is romance, covering half of all mass market paperback titles. Genre fiction as a whole is about 88% of the total fiction market. Disagree. The term "genre fiction" is clos...

Thanks, Yiuel! Though I'm afraid that to really comprehend the dzusuisi, you're going to have to buckle down and master Xurnese. On the plus side, the dzusuisi are short. Upon reading "<i>The dzuséy abandoned their old names and took new ones that seemed to mock the whole idea of guruhood</i>", it ...

Hmm, I should really work out where all the plate boundaries are. (And learn some geology....) My father is a geologist, working as a consultant to the oil industry. One question about continental drift to which I don't know the answer is how chaotic it is over long periods (in the mathematical sen...

It’s a great resource! I agree, and other than being specifically resordings, I don't see why this thread shouldn't be merged with the already fruitful resources thread. Nah, the resources thread is so big that it's unweildy; IMO it's much more practical to have several small and sweet threads for ...

The Swedish dialects page is superbly laid out. (I just wish I could find dialect collections of equal quality for other countries.)

Serali, this is a museum thread; please don't add trivial posts. One thing I find odd about the culture of this board is the liberalness of sigquoting. In other Internet forums that I know, it is considered a major faux pas and a transgression of etiquette to quote someone in your sig without their...

It's 3480... specifically we've gotten to 17 olashu, the date of the last Lord of News extract. On a closely related topic, you never answered the question I asked ages ago on the Almeopedia (specifically, on the Almea talk page ) about the Verdurian calendar (at the time, I was planning to write t...

We will know that conlanging has truly arrived on Almea when someone tries to establish the Xurnese Salon of Conlanging.

The attempt would fail, I'm sure, but I'm thinking it would make a worthy short story in the process.

Looking at some of P. S. Neeley's reconstructions of ancient board games ... in particular Ancient Mayan Bul , Ancient Sumerian Royal Game of Ur , Ancient Egyptian Senet (of course), and Ancient Aztec Patolli ... and I was struck by the thought: I would really like to play an Almean game, and I wond...

I've created a user page and used it to store a list of ideas.

I just received my notification:

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Unfortunately it's very late here, and it will have to wait until a more sensible hour...

I'd also like to visit Xurno: I am very curious what a country run by artists looks like. I must say I'm sceptical of the notion that campaigns against ugliness would be wholly in the interest of the poor; on Earth, whenever society has taken it upon itself to hide poverty from view, the result has...

If I could plan a holiday in Almea, what would I prioritise? Answer: Xurno. Nothing else matters, so long as I can visit Xurno (among other things Xurnash is the coolest-sounding language on the Sounds of Almea page). But in doing so, I'd want to know the answers to a few questions: 1. What's the en...