Subject: Ackanomic Digest V2 #214
From: [email-masked] (Ackanomic Digest)
To: ackanomic-digest

Ackanomic Digest       Wednesday, July 23 1997       Volume 02 : Number 214

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Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 12:43:16 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <devjoe>
Subject: Acka: HTML primer done

For all those potential assistant web-harfers out there, I have written up
a document that describes all you need to know to make simple web pages.
It goes on to describe almost every tag used in the Acka web pages, which
is still quite a bit less than all the possible HTML tags, but includes
most common ones.

You can find it down near the bottom of the main acka page, or send your
browser directly to http://wilma.che.utexas.edu/~devjoe/acka/html.html

/dev/joe
Leaving in a little over a week, ack!

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 13:56:13 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: CFJ 437 (MLF)

> Even assuming that such Similarity is undefined, this has no bearing. 
> Nowhere is there support to the assumption, which is clearly at the basis
> of this CFJ, that this is an undefined _number_, it's just undefined.
	1/0 isn't an undefined number either.  It's the operation
that's undefined.  The operation never gives any result.  In my mind
at least, the case of adding H self-similarity is the same as adding
1/0.  They fail in the same way.

> Clearly, an undefined entity cannot be added to well defined numbers, and
> thus it has no effect on the result of adding them. 
	Clearly?  :o)

> The undefined entity can't be added, therefore we are left with those
> numbers that can be.
	I dunno.  I would tend to say that 3 + (UNDEFINED VALUE) would
fail in the same way as 3/0 fails, and not give any result at all.
	But as I said above, I don't think this is the case at hand.

	I dunno what the end result of my approach might be.

- -- 
Chaos
Clearly, 4 + 3 + 2 + 1/0 = 9 ?

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 12:58:41 -0600 
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Re: Acka: OUCH!!

>> > In the middle of downloading today's mail,  My system took a dump from a
>> > nearby lightning strike.  Everything's OK,  but I lost power just as the
>> > mail was being processed.  Therefore,  I have not recieved anything from
>> > Acka in the last 24 hors.  Couls someone please send me an update????
>> 
>> Last 2 days of acka-games + acka-research; more to come separately:
>
>That'll teach me to watch who I send mail to; sorry everybody who didn't
>need to see this.

Oh, why not, the Current Events page is kinda dull these days:

I'm calling a Public Health Emergency against /dev/joe for sending out those
collected messages to the public mailing list.

- --
- --Alfvaen (Web page: http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/...for now)
Current Album--Super Hits of The 70's Vol. 13
Current Book--Robert Jordan:The Dragon Reborn
Plays well with others

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 13:02:13 -0600 
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: RE: Acka: A New Me

>HEEEE! HAAAA! I got to hand it to you Alvfaen this is the funniest tagline 
>yet. Whoo . Yer too much man I wan't to join yer church. It must be a hoot.

As Founder of the Church of Azpiazu I accept karma as a member.

As soon as we get a mailing list I can start distributing Church Policy
to everyone...but that can wait until we have a new Postmaster, perhaps.

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/)
Current Album--Super Hits of the 70's Vol. 13
Current Book--Robert Jordan:The Dragon Reborn
Friends help you move.  Real friends help you move bodies.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 13:03:27 -0600 
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Re: Acka: HTML primer done

>/dev/joe
>Leaving in a little over a week, ack!

Then isn't it time to start the transition of Offices, while you're still
here to help for a little while?

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/)
Current Album--Super Hits of the 70's Vol. 13
Current Book--Robert Jordan:The Dragon Reborn
All the world's a stage. Where does the audience sit?

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 14:10:22 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  girlfrien

My girlfriend has offered to bring me a lunch every day for the next
two semesters I go to school if I quit Ackanomic.  What do you think?

- -- 
Chaos
considering it

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 14:20:33 -0500 (CDT)
From: Mitchell Harding <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka:  girlfrien 

At 02:10 PM 7/22/97 -0500, you wrote:
>My girlfriend has offered to bring me a lunch every day for the next
>two semesters I go to school if I quit Ackanomic.  What do you think?

Your girlfriend has the same dislike of Ackanomic that my wife does?

Don't do it -- once she has to make lunch for a few weeks, she'll look for
greener pastures. It's a ruse! :)

Robert Sevin

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 21:55:19 -0700
From: **Alexandre Muniz <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: The HTML Standard Volume 1, number 3

We had planned to bring you coverage of the world tromino go 
championships and an exclusive look at the map to the Curious Clock of 
Uesticlox treasure in this issue. Unfortunately, our computer, which has 
been going through a bout of depression due to its impending 
obsolescence, somehow got confused and combined the two. In the hopes 
that someone may be able to extricate one from the other, we are 
publishing the computer's output.

          *G
        *e*L*OCo
  CA    clcNAECf*T
  CHCiAS*c*tAo*Eba*HAy
*E*c*f*tAEBDBhcI*NAE*E
  *rbE*o*GaE*nce*D*T*W
    *TCR*iad*rASAc*c
    aoaSBs*rbubNCECB
    *t*uBIcQce*r*k
  aH*N*aAA*ebLaLaT
  aA*tBAAE  bw*U*V
      BUBg    CACi

$ _

Just as we were going to press, I accidentally spilled some ink on the 
strange computer output. I apologize if that inconveniences anybody.

**two-star
embarassed editor

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 14:26:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka:  girlfrien

> My girlfriend has offered to bring me a lunch every day for the next
> two semesters I go to school if I quit Ackanomic.  What do you think?

I am NOT touching this.

breadbox

------------------------------

Date: 22 Jul 1997 17:03:24 CST/CDT
From: [email-masked]
Subject: Acka:  girlfrien 

AC>My girlfriend has offered to bring me a lunch every day for the next
AC>two semesters I go to school if I quit Ackanomic.  What do you think?

Arghh!  There's no way out of this one.

Consider it in Acka terms.  Your girlfriend is the founder of a Church,
which you are a member of.  The rules give your girlfriend (the Church
founder) broad discretionary powers over the church dogma, which can
have the force of rules in restricting your actions.

Now consider: you particularly enjoy the benefits of being a member of
this Church, and so you do not wish to displease the church founder
(your girlfriend), for fear she might alter the Church dogma to
eliminate the possibility of your being a member of that church (or
worse yet, simply make it Iconoclasm for you to send public messages :)
Anyway, the Church founder offers your Undead significant benefits,
including Sainthood under the doctrine of that Church, if you quit the
game of Ackanomic.  What do you do?

You could accept the offer, leave Ackanomic, and be a Saint (but still
undeniably Undead, less in control of your Acka-destiny than an NVP).
On the other hand, you could decline the offer, thus angering the Church
founder and finding yourself facing the brunt of an unpleasant Dogma.

At least Acka offers the loophole surf in this case; quitting the game,
becoming a Saint by fulfilling the Founder's request, then returning,
since she never said HOW LONG you had to quit Acka.  Unfortunately, real
life isn't nearly so forgiving as Acka, and in this case, you're
probably worse off than in the cases of the above paragraph.

The worst case scenario is of course, kowtowing to the Founder's desire,
and finding oneself a Saint at first, but a few weeks later discovering
the Founder has revoked your Sainthood, and indeed no longer pays any of
the promised benefits to your Undead.  You of course have no recourse,
no longer being a player of Ackanomic and thus being able to change the
game state through your player-hood, and of course if you return, not
having received your end of the bargain, you're back to the situation of
the above paragraph, facing the brunt of an unkind Dogma.

Things are of course, so much more forgiving in Acka, where changing the
Church rule to better suit your needs is a fairly simple task.
Unfortunately, changing the rules for real life also requires a
supermajority, yet there are only two people playing!

You have precious few options in the current real life game state.
Perhaps you should convince your fellow players in that nomic to adopt
the equivalent of our Trinity rule :)

Guy Fawkes

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 14:46:31 -0900
From: Phil Ackley <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka:  girlfrien 

>My girlfriend has offered to bring me a lunch every day for the next
>two semesters I go to school if I quit Ackanomic.  What do you think?

I say no.  What you really need is to pack a lunch and get your girlfriend
hooked on Acknaomic too.

MLF

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 21:59:51 -0400
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Phoebe (ThinMan)

Phoebe has been found by ThinMan, after being ignored by fnord.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 22:05:44 -0400
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: OUCH!!

> I'm calling a Public Health Emergency against /dev/joe for sending
> out those collected messages to the public mailing list.

The valid responses are, "Yes, why just yesterday e posted a letter to 
eir aunt!" and, "No, e, uh, meant to do that."

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 22:34:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Frederic Mc Coy <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Chalice & Agendas

On Tue, 22 Jul 1997, Malenkai wrote:
> > I never much liked the fact that the Golden Frog was just tucked away in a
> > treasure, especially one with this mind boggling behemoth of a treasure
> > map.
> 
> That was my money to create the Frog, and my treasure.  Why is that
> different than any other treasure?

what I meant by this is that I don't like the fact that an entity which is
important to winning the game was created by and put in a treasure by one
player.  I understand that the Golden Frog was your idea, and pre-exists
the whole Chalice divination business.  I think that, assuming there is
some interest by people other than I in keeping the rule around, we should
either make the Golden Frog an regular old entity, or replace it entirely.

> 
> > I can agree with Malenkai that perhaps simply getting the keys to
> > the vault together is too easy a task to merit a win, but it still isn't
> > exactly easy.  It would require a fair amount of time, effort, and guile.
> > Tacking on the treasure map just makes it even harder, I often think of it
> > as "Winning by treasure hunting" now, in my own twisted little head.
> > except of course, it isn't, it's winngng by treasure hnting AND getting
> > all the keys.
> 
> I still think its a reasonable winning condition.  I'll bet for an
> investment of less than A$5000 (the cost of a Museum win), it can be
> done (would *you* sell a fragment for A$200?), and with the possibility of
> scamming or sponging off of someone else's attempt, possibly alot less.
> 

Well, I must admit I had not been thinking about this in terms of paying
to get enough fragments.  I don't think comparing this to the Museum win,
"winning by cash" really helps you though.  There aren't many player who
can realisticaly hope to get that kind of cash together, after all.  Not
without a scam, that is.  At A$200 or so a pop, the fragments would
exhasut most people's cash pretty quick as well, but I doubt they'd
actually cost that much.

> > Well, first off, I don't see why there is any rush to get rid of it.  The
> > keys can be kind of annoying, in that no one ever seems to track them
> > properly,
> 
> That is enough reason, IMO :).   As for a rush, no rush, but I believe 
> without proposal 2220, Synod would have festered unused and unfixed forever.
> Its the same intent here -- spur some interest or can the thing.  Those
> keys have not been voluntarily traded in several *months*.

Point taken.

> 
> > He thinks that the Chalice is too easy to win by, without his treasure
> > map to make it harder.
> 
> I did not say that.  Why am I always misquoted?  I said the condition
> should not be trivial.
> 

I apologize, I did not mean to imply that this was a direct quote.  On the
other hand, by using this arguement that the conditions shouldn't be
trivial, you are implying that they would be, if it wasn't for your
treasure on top of what is discussed in the rules.

> > I'd like to see the Chailce rule stick around, obviously.  what I think
> > should go is this treasure business.  
> 
> Then submit the appropriate proposal.
> 
> > Furthermore, I don't like the fact that the Golden Frog is just a big old
> > trinket with the right name.  I say ditch the treasure, and give the
> > Frog a new home and better definition in the rules.
> 
> The Frog is my creation from way back, even before trinkets, and it has
> a bit of acka history in it.  If you want to do this, use a different
> name.  I will use the backdoor in the RoJ map to get the Frog back, and
> let you provide your own vault divination proposal, if you would like.
> Why don't you propose something?
> 
> It is my opinion that winning should be real difficult.  I guarentee
> that finding the RoJ treasure and then getting the keys would be a
> worthy win.  All I've seen is the magic number trashed so that wins
> are real cheap, and really cool wins, like the Cheez-Whiz one, called
> cheap.  What solution do you propose?
> 
> Malenkai
> 

Well, the reason I'm not proposing anything, si because, appearances to
the contrary, this isn't too big of a deal to me.  I'm not trying to argue
that acka will become totaly unfun and stupid, or whatever, if the rule
goes out.  When I saw your proposal though, I thought it would be a shame
to lose it.  So I took the easy out. =)  I've made my arguement in favor
of keeping the rule, and perhaps changing it, if people really agree with
me then it'll stay and maybe later, when I'm not so busy, I'll propose
something.  Or maybe someone else will get inspired and do it for me ;)

                           - Vynd, lazy...

[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 22:39:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Frederic Mc Coy <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka:  girlfrien

On Tue, 22 Jul 1997, Jason Orendorff wrote:

> My girlfriend has offered to bring me a lunch every day for the next
> two semesters I go to school if I quit Ackanomic.  What do you think?
> 
> -- 
> Chaos
> considering it

OK, first question is, are her lunches any good?  Second question is, do
you really believe it?  If the answers to the above are yes, then my
suggestion is, quit school, have lots of time for both.

                                    - Vynd

[email-masked]

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End of Ackanomic Digest V2 #214
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