I do not remember what the game was like when we got first introduced to it, but it started to evolve quite fast due to frequent play (lots of free time to kill in dorms when the computer-wing of the school got closed early). Having to remove some random cards from the deck was one of the things we ourselves introduced to it - to help prevent draws coming from 4-same-value-card-discard clashing with "exam" mechanics.Originally Posted by Starker
The random card removal and multiple card cheat (which seems to be a very common variant) are the only changes i know for sure we made ourselves. Maybe the "exam" part was also our modification (?). Don't remember. Have not seen anything like that mentioned anywhere else - unless i am blind.
My google-fu must be craptastic. How did you find it?
I've played lots of card games with people from all kinds of places. A deck of cards used to be an easy and cheap source of entertainment before it was replaced by everyone staring at their smartphone screens. And this game has a name that's extra memorable, because you have to say it during the game.
It was in the movie "Failure to Launch". Pretty awful movie but had a few mildly amusing parts. Mostly we play trash talk Uno which is the same as regular Uno but with outlandish pronouncements of dominance and imminent victory which are nearly always proven immediately wrong.
Last edited by Tocky; 18th Mar 2020 at 01:47.
I just got banned from facebook for a day. Someone asked a question and I answered it honestly and straight forward with no nonsense. Then they said they didn't care. So I said "Wait. You posted just to show your stupidity on a subject? Well done. You succeeded." And then they reported me and of course facebook in it's wisdom has chosen to have no humor or cognitive ability. It truly is a crappy system they have set up. Republicans will fish for photos of yours they can deface and place online for simply posting links to reputable news which debunks whatever lies Trump has claimed twenty times a day but facebook will never take YOUR OWN PHOTOS which have been stolen down. They suck. They seem to be set up to allow for abuse. Of course a lot of this could be avoided if I just let the Russian trolls and white nationalist get away with lying or if I used a fake account. Facebook has shut down the ability to create fake accounts to some degree but it's not impossible as any Internet Research Agency operative can tell you. It's just made it harder on the honest folks.
Still not going to shut me up. I'll just use words like ignorance or reasoning disabled or something. I'll have to test those out when they let me back on.
I regularly roast sunflower kernels. Turning them means letting them fly and hoping they'll land on the not yet roasted side. Let's assume that most of them do. One hypothesis, that I like to entertain, to why this might be, is that the centre of gravity slightly shifts towards the not yet roasted side, and inanimate objects, when falling, have a natural tendency to flip around so that the centre of gravity is below the visual centre, meaning that the kernels are more likely to land on their least roasted side.
Why would the centre of gravity shift when a kernel is being roasted? One explanation -- among possibly many other -- could be that moisture trapped inside the kernel evaporates more from the side being roasted than the side not being roasted, meaning that the local specific weight decreases.
More experiments are needed to a) see how many kernels on average that flip and if that amount is (significantly) higher than it would be if the process was random (in which case half of the kernels would flip (on average)), and b) determine why that is (if it in fact is).
Of course, all of my initial assumptions might be false: Maybe it's all random. Maybe there is no moisture at all inside an average sunflower kernel. Maybe the centre of gravity doesn't shift even the tiniest of tiny bits. That's why more experiments are needed. An alternative hypothesis is that I have too much time on my hands, but -- like any other hypothesis -- this too needs to be either proven or disproven through more experiments.
Last edited by qolelis; 10th Mar 2020 at 09:10.
My random thought for the day was, somebody should set up a system that makes neural nets self-modifying and algorithmic (including algorithms to self-modifying the algorithms themselves). There's not really any hard law that says what functions you can make out of a neural net. Classically, people have been so unimaginative. Like an arrangement of pixels go in, and you decimate the activation space until you extract features and pick out objects, so it could tell you this is a flower or a kind of truck. But the kinds of features they extract could be quite abstract, and like I was saying you can link them to algorithmic outputs, and some of those outputs could be instructions that change the weighting of the net itself. Then you could have some evolutionary set up that randomize weighting conditions and keep the ones that maximize performance and cull the ones that fall below a certain threshold, etc.
I then went on to thinking about applications to my natural language gen project. But that's a whole article by itself I should make at some point.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure lots of people have had that thought. I think the obstacle is getting the algorithm to identify use case scenarios for modifying its operating conditions. We don't have neural nets with the kind of sophistication to make useful judgements or decisions for themselves yet.
Isn't that called "the learning process" of the neural network ?
Sulphur actually got into where my thinking was going, which is the real trick here isn't that process by itself, it's parameterization, at least the way I was thinking about it. You structure the problem in terms of a narrow set of parameters that vary in structural ways, then the system can manipulate its decision-making space within the scope of those parameters. So I started thinking more about that than the general method per se.
It is the learning process, but the versions I always saw, the code was doing some tricks to sharpen the neural net output, but it wasn't the output literally acting on its own hidden connections, which then dynamically changes the outputs and that kind of cycle. It seems like that could descend into chaos, but that's where the parameterization comes in. This is all very abstract though. I won't really know what I myself am even talking about until I start playing with this for a real application.
That reminds me a little of genetic algorithms, which were all the rage when I was an undergrad. First you parameterize the problem space, then define the degrees of freedom and their limits, and finally the cost and/or fitness function. In simple applications, the parameters and degrees of freedom are just discrete or continuous variables, so the genetic algorithm is effectively just a multi-dimensional search, and not a particularly efficient one, so the method fell out of favor. However, there is no reason why the degrees of freedom can't include function space. I remember some of my fellow students applied a genetic algorithm to optimizing the design of a lifting body as their senior project, where they gave the algorithm a selection of different design heuristics to apply or not apply as it saw fit. It was a challenge because the different design methods had different parameter spaces. Beyond that, you can put a computer algebra system e.g. Maple inside a genetic algorithm, and apply it to problems where the solution is a not a set of numbers but a set of equations. For example, suppose you want to find a multivariate polynomial that fits a data set within certain errors bounds, and your cost metric is the number of variables in the polynomial, or maybe a better metric is the computational complexity of evaluating the polynomial.
Mine is putting songs with things. The crow could be saying Nemo - if that's the way the crow pronounced the word. There is a song by Nightwish called Nemo and it has crows in it.
Interestingly, after I posted that I saw peter_spy (aka Judith?) also posted a video showing their evolutionary neural net for a little virtual RC car learning a track. There's lots of people doing lots of different little variations on the theme, so it's not easy to sum up. It's interesting to follow anyway.
I'm fascinated by setting up a self-learning system and watching it gradually approach some "solution", not always the solution we're thinking about. (I think I told my story from my AI course about the robot arm that learned to knock its platform to the side to drop the thing in the bucket before.) One application I'm curious about is feeding it a scientific literature in some field and let it approach some "conclusions" it can extract, and see what it comes up with.
I had a strange dream I'm sure was Corona virus related. I arrived at a dinner party held in a stone mansion atop a hill. We sat at the table in formal dress and held pleasant conversation over wine with everyone ribbing each other good naturedly. As a platter of meat was passed to me I noticed the fellows wrist begin to sprout hair and looked into his face seeing a snout and teeth. It startled me but just as I acknowledged it in my mind his face returned to normal. Another fellow to my right leaned forward and pointed at him saying, "Ha! I saw you change! Don't deny it!". "I never did!", he replied. "You did! You did! I saw you you lying liar from liar town!" And then HIS face changed to a wolf and back briefly. Then they both laughed as if it were the most natural thing. I was horrified.
Another fellow did it and denied it as everyone poked fun only he was denying it AS he was a wolf which made everyone laugh harder. Soon they were all going back and forth from human to animal and kidding each other. I noticed a lady at the opposite end of this large oval table biting into a slice of beef with long sharp teeth and looked down at my portion which was hardly seared at all and very bloody. When I looked back at her there was blood running down her chin. Worse, she was staring directly at me. "Well what are YOU looking at?" she said, smiling a wide smile full of bloody pointed teeth. I fumbled for something to say, something which would cover the fact I was the only one not changing, but all I could think was "the better to eat you with" which she found uproarious. She tilted her head back and laughed a way too wide laugh.
The table, which was raucous before, became quiet and everyone stared at me. They were no longer changing but that didn't make it any better. They all looked like lunatics and I was scared shitless. There was an air of expectancy and I suddenly wondered why I was here with all these well dressed people I didn't know. I looked down at my hands and set my knife and fork down carefully saying, "Oh look, I didn't wash my hands, I'm sure I passed a lavatory down the hall. I'll just wash up then, excuse me". Every head turned and every eye watched me leave, all of them smiling in silence, some with smears of blood on them.
I stole my way down the hall and into the first door I came to which was a kitchen. There was a fire with a large kettle on a hook over it. I slid the bolt over as quietly as I could but there were no low windows and the ones there were were too high and narrow. I looked into the drawers and cabinets for a weapon but everything was utterly bare. The pot over the fire was empty as well. The whole place looked medieval but there were no fireplace pokers even. I sat down at a rough hewn table and tried to gather my thoughts. Directly I heard a soft rapping at the door and a soft male voice say, "are you alright in there?". Then there was a lot of tittering laughter and snorting as if behind hands. That scared me so bad I woke up.
I lay awake for a bit thinking how strange a dream it was and how vivid.
That reminded me Grimm, the now ended TV show. Have you seen it?
I caught an episode or two but it never grabbed my interest as I hadn't followed it early on. I think where some of it came from was Poe's Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather and Masque of the Red Death. Throw in some Universal Studios props and it made a nice scary little vignette. Nearly all my interesting dreams are nightmares.
Got a new laptop, loaded up my GOG account. Saw Thief in my library. Remembered there was an incredible community I used to frequent back in the day.
There is history all around us. Even in our own back yards. While metal detecting in the field across from my house I found a puddle of lead about three feet down. I knew General Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville was beaten badly by the Chickasaw in Pontotoc and his men bivouaced here in the early 1700's in that retreat but to hold that hunk of lead in my hands and think of the French soldiers molding musket balls hurriedly before dark never knowing if they were being pursued and would have to fight again before their wounds were well licked brought feeling to the very soil beneath my feet.
Similarly I felt an odd chill visiting the grave of Elizabeth Powell recently. I'm kin to some Powell's but that wasn't the reason I visited. I'm still doing the Count Eeflac horror intro gig for a local station and I thought it would serve well for an episode about a witch movie. Her maiden name was Bell. She was Betsy Bell, the victim of the Bell witch, the most famous American haunting. There is quite an accounting of it through the years and many horror movies based on it, most recently "An American Haunting". It's a strange story and here is a link if you are interested- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Witch. I'm not sure what to make of it truthfully. She had a hard life and if any of her early life is true then I pity the whole messed up family. It is said even president Andrew Jackson visited and had strange things happen to him. It's certainly the most puzzled over tale in these parts and who am I of all people to doubt her. If anything I understand her too well.
I'm proud of my son in law. A nice old couple lived next door and the wife liked to feed his chickens so they would come over and visit. Well the man died and the man's son came over to clean up his parents yard. Only he soon came and told my son in law to keep the chickens out or else he would shoot them. My SIL told him the only reason they came over was his mother had been feeding them but if that was how he felt he would hire a surveyor and build a fence to keep them in. They had always shared eggs with the lady and still would despite her sons mean demeanor.
The surveyor comes and low and behold the line is clear up to the edge of the mans driveway. He wasn't expecting that. So he goes and tells the man that he will have to move all of the junk that had been piling up of theirs on his property over the years so the fence building can begin. Oh that set the man off. He told him he would whip my SIL's ass. At that point I would have done something stupid but my son in law is a smarter man than I. He simply reminded him the only way to stop the movement of chickens is with a fence and he did not want to fence in any of the fellows junk. He offered the card of the surveyor and even suggested he get his own surveyor should there be any dispute. He then reminded him that this was all at that mans insistence but if there were to be any fighting it was best to get it done now so they could both get on with what they will have to do anyway.
I had heard tell of this adult way of handling assholes but had never tried it myself. It works. The guy began cleaning things off the property he had thought was his. Later the guys kids came to help and be damned if they weren't in Dustin's class. LOL. Karma will turn around and bite an asshole right in the what they are.
I know she doesn't appreciate it now but one day when she hears Night Moves or Old Time Rock and Roll on the radio she will recall how she played the theme to Jurassic Park on the very piano she is listening to in the very room where Bob recorded them. Maybe she will think of Papaw and our trip to Muscle Shoals Sound Studio too. So much wonderful music came out of this room, from Etta James to the Stones.
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Facebook banned again. When a Republican THREATENED TO KILL PEOPLE I called him a lunatic and Facebook in it's wisdom banned ME. I even said I hoped Facebook would report him for prosecution, he had after all, THREATENED TO KILL PEOPLE but because I called him a lunatic that was more important to Facebook. I was being a bully. Never mind that he THREATENED TO KILL PEOPLE, which is a lunatic thing to do, I was a bully for pointing out he was a lunatic for doing so.
I'm pretty damned sick of Facebook.
Looking at that picture of my grand daughter I know she is my closest reproduction. She not only has my expressions but my secretive thoughts. She holds close her most deeply felt thoughts knowing they will be too scrutinized by those less discerning. I love her most though I perhaps should not. I know she is apart from her peers because I was. She lives among her fellows and acts the part of being like them. She is not. She is above them. She thinks independent of all she has been indoctrinated to think. I love my other blood. The shear happiness and joy of abandon my other grandchild shows even in her weirdness. But this one is the most thoughtful. This one is a solid being. She cannot be changed by the world. She knows who she is independent of the pressure of society or any individual in it. I could not change her even if I wanted to. I don't. I respect her. She does not seek approval. She seeks only the road which takes her to truth. I love that. If I am crushed by the weight of that assessment then so be it. I have failed in many ways. I want her to see that as well. I value that unflinching gaze and that piercing questing testing of self. Where is truth? She will find it. She will know it when it is found. She is even more like me than my own daughter who is in many ways better than myself. But this one sees. Beyond even sentiment she sees. I love that. She is the me I wish I could be.
Something I found amusing about her today. She was voted miss junior high of her school. I always thought of those girls as being a bit snooty. But there she is voted in. You can't get more popular than that. My wife called her all excited and gushing over it. My grand daughter just said "Nana, it's not that big of a deal. It's not like I earned it. It's not something that's going to help me with my future." Ha! She took it exactly right. I'm proud.
My other grand daughter is class president. Neither of them is exclusionary or stuck up or anything but kind and thoughtful and funny. Best of all, they are prouder of staying on the honor role.
Did criteria for these things change since I was in school or was I the asshole for thinking those sorts of girls were snooty? Ah shit. I bet it was me. I even used the wrong sheer in the post above this one. Damn. "Oh what gift the giftie gie us", I guess.
You were probably jealous.Gotta cut 'em down to size!
Wanting popularity was anathema to my bad boy down with the man image. I thought I was exclusionary to the exclusionary... while dating a homecoming queen... so... most likely I was just an ass.
We were all asses. I'm just gonna say, anyone attracted to these forums, because of these games, has, by default, assumed at a young age that we had some shit figured out. It's okay to admit now that we didn't, but there's a kind of yard-sale/pawnshop intellectual elitism that's persisted here for as long as I can remember. I can't even say it's arrogant, it's just that there are things we know and don't care if anyone else agrees or not. Birds of a feather...
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