The climate of Middle-Earth

Substantial postings about constructed languages and constructed worlds in general. Good place to mention your own or evaluate someone else's. Put quick questions in C&C Quickies instead.
Post Reply
User avatar
Particles the Greek
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 181
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2013 1:48 am
Location: Between clauses

The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by Particles the Greek »

Is simulated here. Just imagine if this could be made into a more general-purpose program which would run on your PC or tablet, and not a supercomputer!
Non fidendus est crocodilus quis posteriorem dentem acerbum conquetur.

User avatar
Zaarin
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1136
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 5:00 pm

Re: The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by Zaarin »

That would be nice. I'm horrible at climate models. :P
"But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?”

User avatar
Rhetorica
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 271
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2013 3:33 pm

Re: The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by Rhetorica »

Most clusters these days run Linux on standard Intel or AMD 64-bit CPUs. You actually can run climate simulators on home computers (if they're running Linux or Unix), but they'd take years to run enough data to be significant.

The real issue is that you can't get the source code or binaries for most of them, which is downright indefensible in this day and age. (HadCM3L, used in the paper, is under strict licence for distribution to collaborators only.)

User avatar
Izambri
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1556
Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2004 4:27 pm
Location: Catalonia

Re: The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by Izambri »

Nice work. It even has translations in Elvish and Darwish!
Un llapis mai dibuixa sense una mà.

User avatar
Jipí
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1128
Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2003 1:48 pm
Location: Litareng, Keynami
Contact:

Re: The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by Jipí »

Izambri wrote:Nice work. It even has translations in Elvish and Darwish!
I didn't know that Tolkien's famous conlangs, Elvish and Dwarvish, are exactly equivalent to English written with funny letters.

I mean, it's certainly a nice publicity gag, but the nerd in me Doesn't. Find. That. Funny. For reasons!

Apply sarcasm tags where needed.

User avatar
Izambri
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1556
Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2004 4:27 pm
Location: Catalonia

Re: The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by Izambri »

Jipí wrote:
Izambri wrote:Nice work. It even has translations in Elvish and Darwish!
I didn't know that Tolkien's famous conlangs, Elvish and Dwarvish, are exactly equivalent to English written with funny letters.

I mean, it's certainly a nice publicity gag, but the nerd in me Doesn't. Find. That. Funny. For reasons!

Apply sarcasm tags where needed.
Please, note the sarcasm in my message. ; )
Un llapis mai dibuixa sense una mà.

User avatar
sangi39
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 402
Joined: Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:34 am
Location: North Yorkshire, UK

Re: The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by sangi39 »

Zaarin wrote:That would be nice. I'm horrible at climate models. :P
Same. It'd be nice to just design a planet, plug the various details into a computer and get a nice little climate model that would show you roughly how the climate would change through the year. It's a shame really, especially for people who just can't get their heads round the subject.

On a different note, did they really use a university's supercomputer for that? I wonder if I could book some time on it :P
You can tell the same lie a thousand times,
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.

User avatar
Zaarin
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1136
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 5:00 pm

Re: The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by Zaarin »

I've heard that the next version of Universe Sandbox will have primitive climate calculation, but I already have rough simulations through Fractal Terrains 3--which interestingly never forms desert and basically creates a gradient of continental and alpine/arctic. :/
"But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?”

User avatar
Torco
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 2372
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:45 pm
Location: Santiago de Chile

Re: The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by Torco »

Give it twenty years: nowadays cellphones have more processing power than the original pentium chip. Curiously, the old 486 with 256mb of ram was able to browse the internet about as fast as my current i3 with 6 gigs of ram... but I *guess* a computer 30 times as powerful can be coerced into do stuff the weaker machine was unable to ?

Taking advantage of there being people here who know about computers... why does windows 7 always hog 1,3 gigs of ram on startup on my 6gigs of ram laptop, even though it can run on a computer with 1gig of ram hogging only 30% of it ?

Aili Meilani
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 144
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 3:21 pm

Re: The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by Aili Meilani »

Torco wrote:but I *guess* a computer 30 times as powerful can be coerced into do stuff the weaker machine was unable to ?
Number crunching, like climate simulators, or databases will be much faster, but average Joe's programs will not. The reason is the latter class of programs became much slower[1], so in the end computer speed / program speed ratio is about the same (to all nitpickers: I don't have any precise measurements).

[1] you see, many programmers nowadays think that "optimization is the root of all evil". Taking it out of context by omitting the word "premature" makes it so much closer to what most programmers blindly believe. It's kinda funny, because even the "full" quote "premature optimization is the root of all evil" is itself out of context.
Torco wrote: Taking advantage of there being people here who know about computers... why does windows 7 always hog 1,3 gigs of ram on startup on my 6gigs of ram laptop, even though it can run on a computer with 1gig of ram hogging only 30% of it ?
Caches, caches and lots of caches.

User avatar
WeepingElf
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1630
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 5:00 pm
Location: Braunschweig, Germany
Contact:

Re: The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by WeepingElf »

Aino Meilani wrote:Number crunching, like climate simulators, or databases will be much faster, but average Joe's programs will not.
Yes, because such things as word processors, spreadsheets and web browsers just wait for input most of the time.
...brought to you by the Weeping Elf
Tha cvastam émi cvastam santham amal phelsa. -- Friedrich Schiller
ESTAR-3SG:P human-OBJ only human-OBJ true-OBJ REL-LOC play-3SG:A

Aili Meilani
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 144
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 3:21 pm

Re: The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by Aili Meilani »

And when they aren't, before they start doing useful work they display pretty graphics and give you an option to post a message to facetwit about what you're editing or viewing or something.

It's a hyperbole, but most software truly is shit these days.

User avatar
Torco
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 2372
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:45 pm
Location: Santiago de Chile

Re: The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by Torco »

They don't make them like they used to?

I mean that sounds like anyone could just recompile the old browsers, make java and flash run on them, and have superfast awesomesauce internet.

User avatar
Drydic
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1652
Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2002 12:23 pm
Location: I am a prisoner in my own mind.
Contact:

Re: The climate of Middle-Earth

Post by Drydic »

Torco wrote:They don't make them like they used to?

I mean that sounds like anyone could just recompile the old browsers, make java and flash run on them, and have superfast awesomesauce internet.
And immediately get saturated with things flying through their security holes.
Other than that, actually yes.
Image Image
Common Zein Scratchpad & other Stuffs! OMG AN ACTUAL CONPOST WTFBBQ

Formerly known as Drydic.

Post Reply