From wschenk at gmail.com Wed Mar 9 16:56:16 2005 From: wschenk at gmail.com (Will Schenk) Date: Wed Mar 9 16:51:57 2005 Subject: The Cyberiad Message-ID: This is totally off-topic I know. I was reading the Cyberiad the other day and was struck by the humming echos between the Poignant's more fantastical passages and Lem's fine, fine work. "The Third Sally, or the Dragons of Probability" in particular, but perhaps "The First Sally (A), (etc)" in which our cybernetic constructors attempt to make a poetry writing machine by first similuatating all of creation in order to have sufficient depth of experience. Any connection _why? You wouldn't happen to be a native polish speaker...? http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0156027593/ref=sib_rdr_toc/103-3458102-6683846?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S00A#reader-page -w -- Will Schenk http://www.sublimeguile.com From why at poignantguide.net Fri Mar 11 16:34:38 2005 From: why at poignantguide.net (why the lucky stiff) Date: Fri Mar 11 16:30:14 2005 Subject: The Cyberiad In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <42320EEE.5090409@poignantguide.net> Will Schenk wrote: >This is totally off-topic I know. > >I was reading the Cyberiad the other day and was struck by the humming >echos between the Poignant's more fantastical passages and Lem's fine, >fine work. "The Third Sally, or the Dragons of Probability" in >particular, but perhaps "The First Sally (A), (etc)" in which our >cybernetic constructors attempt to make a poetry writing machine by >first similuatating all of creation in order to have sufficient depth >of experience. > >Any connection _why? You wouldn't happen to be a native polish speaker...? > > Sorry for the late reply. Just getting through my e-mail now. I don't speak any Polish. But, whenever I can, I try to write with a Polish accent. In fact, my name in full -- which reads: why the lucky stiff -- is Polish for "an eight-nine year old man wearing too small of a backpack stuffed with clocks." You know what? I love that book. I've got proof even: Of the Lem books I've read, that one is by far my favorite. The sixth sally (or How Trurl and Klapaucius Created a Demon of the Second Kind to Defeat the Pirate Pugg) is among one of my favorite stories ever. Right next to probably The Laughing Man (by J.D. Salinger) and TV People (by Haruki Murakami). I think I like The Cyberiad because it's more of a short story collection. I often prefer short story collections to books. So, yeah, I consider myself heavily influenced by slavic literature. Gogol and Kafka and Kharms (and anything Oberiu) hold the lion's share in my mind's governing committee. If have more Polish authors, please. _why From Bil.Kleb at NASA.Gov Sat Mar 12 05:42:25 2005 From: Bil.Kleb at NASA.Gov (Bil Kleb) Date: Sat Mar 12 05:38:28 2005 Subject: y worship? Message-ID: <4232C791.1060309@NASA.Gov> http://www.43things.com/things/view/67235 Regards, -- Bil Kleb http://fun3d.larc.nasa.gov From why at poignantguide.net Wed Mar 23 11:22:18 2005 From: why at poignantguide.net (why the lucky stiff) Date: Wed Mar 23 11:18:27 2005 Subject: [ANN] Dwemthy's Array -- the Ruby mini_adventure Message-ID: <424197BA.9050001@poignantguide.net> Since you were a very young rabbit in little cotton pants, Dwemthy's Array has breathed on your neck and you're tired of it. You draw your glistening Hero's Sword from its sheath and cut a low-circling falcon in half as a confidence building exercise. Your eyes flick about in a cool and freaky way. You're ready... It's time to stare this construct in the face. $$$ DWEMTHY_S ARRAY ^!^ A RUBY MINI_DUNGEON ^!^ CODE TO KILL BY $$$ Here, try this: http://poignantguide.net/dwemthy/ The sixth chapter of Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby is on its way. This chapter covers metaclasses and method_missing with the help of Dwemthy's demonic list. The code for the little RPG is now available. A full explanation is forthcoming in chapter six. Please send your hacks to the poignant-stiffs list. Subscription information is at http://poignant.rubyforge.org/. _why From why at poignantguide.net Wed Mar 23 19:50:59 2005 From: why at poignantguide.net (why the lucky stiff) Date: Wed Mar 23 19:47:35 2005 Subject: [ANN] Dwemthy's Array -- the Ruby mini_adventure In-Reply-To: <493ae8fc05032316103da67625@mail.gmail.com> References: <424197BA.9050001@poignantguide.net> <493ae8fc050323135763be0cf8@mail.gmail.com> <493ae8fc05032316103da67625@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <42420EF3.2090804@poignantguide.net> Karen Pouelle wrote: > > I found the missing code: > See, that code is possessed. Earlier, before I put up the site, I was testing things and I happened to look at the page through a blood-encrusted spyglass and _that very code_ vanished when I did so. It really affected me, really spooked me out, so I locked up all my dogs and cockatiels out in the shed, barring the door twice. Then, later, when I got back from jazz dance, I opened the shed and the place was covered in roach blood -- my pets were all huddled together, keeping each other warm -- and there in the center of the room... was a DETACHED TERMINAL WINDOW (vt100). It had one of Dwemthy's IRC sessions in it and the screen was full of trout slaps. I screamed at full volume. > Apparently, the cut/paste ended too soon, cued by the end > end which ended the class. I'm not sure why people do that, > but personal confusion results, as I thought the end > end was the end. The class DwemthysArray's end was end > end. > > Why do people SOMETIMES separate classes from definitions > with an extra line? That seems like a larger mystery than > how this array thing works. Maybe there will be a chapter or > aside on such a silly thing as where and why whitespace > is placed. It's the equivalent of taking a shallow breath in the ocean. Oh, and I have asthma. I hope I've made that painfully clear. Thankyou for venturing into the hazards of Dwemthy's Array, Karen. If you like the game, a link on del.icio.us would do well... Or e-mail it to a friend... Or some have promised ewe cheese and Vietnamese donuts just this week. _why From ntalbott at gmail.com Wed Mar 23 21:13:21 2005 From: ntalbott at gmail.com (Nathaniel Talbott) Date: Wed Mar 23 21:08:29 2005 Subject: Where's the magick??? Message-ID: So I have my little rabbit, and he's got all this charisma (he's thinking of running for prez, but first he's got this labor union of monsters to stomp on). Occasionally I noticed he was getting [magick powers up!] and I wondered if that would get him more votes in the future. Looking at the code, though, it's just one of those misleading exit poll thingies, run by no other than Dwemthy himself, sent to raise my little guy's hopes (he's going to run on the "but I'm a cute bunny... who wouldn't trust me?!?" platform) and then dashes them to the ground. And, you see, he can't take this, since his brother's about to get eaten... so don't forget to http://savetoby.com/ ! Vote for the little guy! And give him some p_up already! -- Nathaniel <:((>< From why at poignantguide.net Thu Mar 24 02:47:13 2005 From: why at poignantguide.net (why the lucky stiff) Date: Thu Mar 24 02:43:47 2005 Subject: Where's the magick??? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <42427081.90100@poignantguide.net> Nathaniel Talbott wrote: >Occasionally I noticed he was getting [magick >powers up!] and I wondered if that would get him more votes in the >future. Looking at the code, though, it's just one of those misleading >exit poll thingies, run by no other than Dwemthy himself, sent to >raise my little guy's hopes... > Dwemthy is not responsible for this. He is in supreme outrage. He is swinging his mace and shield around in cavalier fashion. His lions aren't happy as well. He's playing heavy metal way too loud. His neighbors are banging on the wall. Seriously, his speakers are shot. It's like metal dogs are screaming at welding equipment. >Vote for the little guy! And give him some p_up already! > > I like you. Come, let's be brothers. Watch it take me upwards of 48 hours to work up an increment operation. Looks like I've got to go back and get my tools out. Gheesh, beaver tales already. _why From why at poignantguide.net Fri Mar 25 13:23:29 2005 From: why at poignantguide.net (why the lucky stiff) Date: Fri Mar 25 13:18:36 2005 Subject: Dwemthy Hacks: 3 from Daiv Brt Message-ID: <42445721.6030208@poignantguide.net> A laser and non-resurrective lettuce. But the second hack, the automatic game winner is loverly! _why -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: "Dave Burt" Subject: Re: [ANN] Dwemthy's Array -- the Ruby mini_adventure Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 17:54:48 +0900 Size: 7812 Url: http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/poignant-stiffs/attachments/20050325/e661fa8d/ANNDwemthysArray--theRubymini_adventure.eml From olleolleolle at home.se Mon Mar 28 16:47:55 2005 From: olleolleolle at home.se (Olle Jonsson) Date: Mon Mar 28 16:42:59 2005 Subject: Dwemthy Hacks: 3 from Daiv Brt In-Reply-To: <42445721.6030208@poignantguide.net> Message-ID: <200503282147.j2SLlrZm016296@smtp020.tiscali.dk> > -----Original Message----- > Subject: Dwemthy Hacks: 3 from Daiv Brt > > A laser and non-resurrective lettuce. But the second hack, > the automatic game winner is loverly! > > _why > http://www.whirlitzer.org/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=ruby;action=display;nu m=1020144994 Am quoting that forum post here, fer yer all: ---snip--- RUBY I Humans (examples: Ruby, TJ Teru, And/Or, Techno-witches) Rodants (Rodant Kapoor) Androids (Angel Lips) Mole People (Moliere, Moleena) Aurorians (Monet, Moonbeam) Tookahs (Tookah) Robots (Sam the bardroid) Slimies Mutants (Toots) New additions can be found in: RUBY II Bulldada (Bulldada) ---snip--- Thought it was a Why TPS generator or sth! Love, Olle Jonsson From mental at rydia.net Wed Mar 30 16:36:33 2005 From: mental at rydia.net (mental@rydia.net) Date: Wed Mar 30 16:31:34 2005 Subject: eval-less, send-less Creature.traits bleeds lemony goodness Message-ID: <1112218593.424b1be1d8151@www.rydia.net> Here's a version of Creature.traits from Dwemthy's Array that uses define_method (without requiring send): def Creature.traits(*arr) return @traits if arr.empty? attr_accessor *arr arr.each do |a| (class << self ; self ; end).instance_eval { define_method(a) {|val| @traits ||= {} @traits[a] = val } } end class_eval { define_method(:initialize) { self.class.traits.each do |k,v| instance_variable_set("@#{k}", v) end } } end I much prefer this to using eval -- the key was the discovery that instance_eval/class_eval capture local variables. Look good, or can someone improve on this? -mental From mental at rydia.net Wed Mar 30 16:41:45 2005 From: mental at rydia.net (mental@rydia.net) Date: Wed Mar 30 16:36:45 2005 Subject: addendum In-Reply-To: <1112218593.424b1be1d8151@www.rydia.net> References: <1112218593.424b1be1d8151@www.rydia.net> Message-ID: <1112218905.424b1d19e5f5f@www.rydia.net> Quoting myself: > I much prefer this to using eval -- the key was the discovery > that instance_eval/class_eval capture local variables. Well, of course I meant string evals. Block evals don't count. Yes, that's it. >_> <_< -mental