Subject: ackanomic digest V2 #259
From: [email-masked] (ackanomic digest)
To: [email-masked]

ackanomic digest        Monday, August 18 1997        Volume 02 : Number 259

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Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 19:45:01 -0600 (MDT)
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Re: acka: my house

> in reading the rules, i discovered that i have a house.  according to
> rule 252, i can change the name of my house (until now called 'Ben's
> house').  so i am officially changing the name of my house to Ben's
> House of Pain.

I like it.  :-)

> according to 846 i can post a description of my house, and apparently
> there are no restrictions other than it must be less than 35 meters high.

I'm not clear on whether that means that the complete description,
displayed in the smallest possible readable font on a computer monitor,
must fit on a screen less than 35 meters square, or whether, printed on
paper on which it is still readable, the stack of paper does not exceed 35
meters in height.  Of course, in either case there are no width
restrictions.

I hadn't thought before, but it might be actually against the Rules to say
"My house is 35.1 meters high."

> Ben's House of Pain is a large black monolith, 3.8 meters deep,15.2
> meters wide, and 34.2 meters high.  it does not reflect light, and is so
> black that the material it is made of is indeterminable.  it is
> completely featureless, except at the lower right, where a phish
> bumpersticker has been attached to the side of the house.
> 
> Ben's House of Pain is surrounded by attractive tasteful shrubbery at
> its base to hide the suction cups and emergency tether, which the owner
> finds aesthetically unpleasing.

I'm thinking of adding a page for house descriptions to the web pages.  In
my copious spare time, of course.  If anyone happens to have their sitting
around, feel free to email it to me if it wasn't posted in the last three
months or so(in which case if I know approximately when it was posted I can
easily find it in my archived email).  Or if it was earlier, I can access
old email archives.  I suppose Towers should fit into there, too.

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/alfvaen/ )
Current Song--Rod Stewart:Young Turks
Current Book--John A. Williams:Mothersill And The Foxes
By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.

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Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 20:07:07 -0600 (MDT)
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Re: Acka: Rule Harfer?

> The rules are the most important part of Ackanomic. In fact they are the only
> part that matters. In view of this it is strange that there is no Rule Harfer.

Well, it must have just fallen under the Office of someone who was willing
and able to do it themselves.  Obviously the time has come for it, though.

> Are the web page for the rules updated by some automatic tool or is it updated
> by hand?

As far as I know, it was done by hand.  For one thing, there's no fixed
format for submitting proposals.  (I remember Vynd's last Mad Scientist
amendment proposal impressed me as being particularly hard to
automate...and almost too confusing to understand all of what it did.  I
almost expected it to say, "Increase Vynd's score to the Magic Number".
:-)

> The best thing to do, in my humble opinion, would be to have a database of all
> the rules and proposals with links. Then the html source could be
> automatically generated from this database, the database could be queried by
> ftp or email and the players could always get the latest updates.
> The database need not be that advanced. A simple file for each rule and
> proposal, and a simple file format allowing links to other rules and proposals.

It has been suggested that it be possible to fetch an individual Rule, or
Proposal.  It has also been suggested that it be possible to fetch any
arbitrary set of Rules--including "all the rules" or "all the rules in the
1200's", as is possible now, and possibly including "all the rules that
mention Trinkets".

> Beacuse a lot of people (including me!) has to resort to using a simple 28.8
> connection, the task of checking a specific rule is a time-consuming matter.
> This could be solved by using on-the-fly generated html-pages, one for every
> rule.

My solution was to download the Rules section by section, and update them
when necessary for whatever specific Rule I was consulting.  It helped my
Proposal and CFJ composition dramatically, not to mention making it easy to
just read the things.

> This of course requires a Rule Harfer! The office of Rule Harfer would be an
> optiobal office, and the task of updating the rules should be performed by the
> Rule Harfer as often as e has time. Preferably the rules should be updated
> right after any new rule change take effect.

> I could consider being Rule Harfer, should such an office come into existance.

I think that someone(probably me)should draft up an RFC sometime, so we can
hash this out for when the Promoter and Tabulator offices are 100%
functional again.

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/alfvaen/ )
Current Song--Crash Vegas:Inside Out
Current Book--John A. Williams:Mothersill And The Foxes
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

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Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 23:10:24 -0400
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Registrarness (Vynd, Niccolo Flychuck)

> Secondly, we have a player who is returning, but not having an Undead is
> considered a New player by the Rules.  His Ackanomic name is ILIOS, his
> real name Alex Harisiadis, and his email address [email-masked], which I
> believe is in Greece.

Indeed it is.  You can check iso3166 country codes, which almost all
top-level domains are based on, at http://www.itw.com/~malenkai/iso.htm.
(I was bored one nite :)).

Also, welcome to all the new players.

Malenkai

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Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 23:15:16 -0400
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Evil Twin

I am becoming Alfvaen's Evil Twin, if he agrees to it (and
vice versa).  Do I have to quote any TMBG to make this work?

Malenkai
So let me thank you for putting me back in my snail shell

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Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 21:25:48 -0600 (MDT)
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Re: Acka: Evil Twin

> I am becoming Alfvaen's Evil Twin, if he agrees to it (and
> vice versa).  Do I have to quote any TMBG to make this work?

I don't think so.  I do agree to be Malenkai's Evil Twin.

> So let me thank you for putting me back in my snail shell
  Where the world goes by like a human hair

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/alfvaen/ )
Current Album--Howard Jones:Cross That Line
Current Book--John A. Williams:Mothersill And The Foxes
Everybody talks about the weather, but no one DOES anything about it!

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Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 21:26:53 -0600 (MDT)
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Re: Acka: Registrarness (Vynd, Niccolo Flychuck)

> > Secondly, we have a player who is returning, but not having an Undead is
> > considered a New player by the Rules.  His Ackanomic name is ILIOS, his
> > real name Alex Harisiadis, and his email address [email-masked], which I
> > believe is in Greece.

> Indeed it is.  You can check iso3166 country codes, which almost all
> top-level domains are based on, at http://www.itw.com/~malenkai/iso.htm.
> (I was bored one nite :)).

It's been too long since I last did that.  Back five years or so ago when
I decided I wanted to find out which computer names were most popular on
the Net.  I think I managed to cover Canada, but that's it.  (And I have
the results _someplace_...)

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/alfvaen/ )
Current Album--Howard Jones:Cross That Line
Current Book--John A. Williams:Mothersill And The Foxes
"Good job I can't see far with this leg."

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End of ackanomic digest V2 #259
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