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Comment: Re:Yet we still don't know what really happened (Score 1) 308

by Daniel Klugh (#43180871) Attached to: Using Truth Serum To Confirm Insanity
It's THAC0; To Hit AC 0. "AC" refers to "Armour Class". It's an attempt by post-Gygax TSR to dumb-down AD&D; replacing the "Attack Matrix" with a simple base number that you subtract the target's AC from. AC10 is the base AC for un-armoured characters that aren't hiding behind cover from ranged attacks or utilising their super-speed/agility to dodge attacks.

And "+5 to THAC0" would be a penalty since you need to roll a number on a 20-sided die equal to or greater than the THAC0 to "hit" (i.e. hurt) your target. Rather you'd say "+5 To Hit" to indicate that 5 would be added to your die roll.
(allowing you to hit someone with AC0 even if your THAC0 was 25 by rolling a 20!)

Comment: Re:Lol (Score 1) 384

by Daniel Klugh (#43060389) Attached to: Is Code.org Too Soulless To Make an Impact?
To be fair, Slashdot seemed to delete the indentations that make sense of what
the OR and AND bolean operators apply to.  Just go to the document he linked to
and it will make much more sense.
(why does Slashdot not support PRE or XMP tags?!?)

P.S. Just discovered "Code" mode:

(and (or (= (string-length "hello world") (string->number "11"))
         (string=? "hello world" "good morning"))
     (>= (+ (string-length "hello world") 60) 80))

P.P.S. Is there anyway to make this code appear corectly other than than
       posting in "Code" mode?

Comment: Re:Great idea, but... (Score 1) 115

by Daniel Klugh (#42954549) Attached to: Can You Do the Regular Expression Crossword?
Acording to O'Reily's "Unix in a Nutshell", ex (and hence vi), sed and ed support the \number feature. I know from experience that vim and GNU emacs support it. In fact, GNU emacs's "dired" ("directory editor") feature lets you re-name files automatically; allowing you to convert floating point numbers in file names to fixed point (so they sort corectly) and corecting extentions (e.g. /\(.*\)\.jpe/\1\.jpeg/).
(n.b. you have to put back-slashes before parenthese to make them meta-characters in emacs)

Comment: Bitmaps vs. Vectors? (Score 1) 221

It's rasterised vs. vector! Unless the image is B&W (or any two colours) it's stored as packed-pixel these days. Multi-bitmap "planar" image formats (like Amiga's IFF:ILBM) got left behind in the 80's. Even SuperVGA cards only use planar modes when eulating an actual VGA chip or EGA card.
(it's surprising how incompatible SuperVGA modes are with regular EGA/VGA modes)

Comment: Re:Apt-get install clue (Score 1) 303

by Daniel Klugh (#42248315) Attached to: How To Use a Linux Virtual Private Server
Rogue is a graphical/visual interface. You can see all the monsters/items/landscape features laid out graphically on any text terminal. A non-graphical "text" RPG would be like Zork or some other so-called "text adventure" where you have to picture the lay-out of the game world in your mind.

And doesn't Rogue pre-date curses?
(as in it just reads /etc/termcap and outputs the escape/control codes itself)

Comment: Atari Home Computer System (Score 1) 438

by Daniel Klugh (#42158617) Attached to: How Does a Single Line of BASIC Make an Intricate Maze?
On the Atari HCS:
10PR.CHR$(6+RND(0));:G.10
which, when entered and then LISTed back out, becomes:
PRINT CHR$(6+RND(0));:GOTO 10
You might also want to POKE 82,0:POKE 712,148 to use the whole screen and make the border colour match the background.

Atari BASIC rounds to the nearest whole number rather than just dropping the fraction; hence the use of "6" instead of "6.5".
(it's actually theï Atari OS doing the rounding, not the BASIC lang. cart. itself)

Comment: Re:Is it Romulan? (Score 1) 56

How does being invisible protect you from ocean waves? Perhaps they confused "invisibility" with "intangibility". Then again, the Cloaking Device on Star Trek worked via the Deflector Screen (Stargate: Atlantis coppied this) so it's understandable if stupid people get confused.

Comment: Re:Go for an old console instead (Score 1) 267

by Daniel Klugh (#42067645) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best Console For the Kids This Holiday?

Or get a Atari 800 HCS (Home Computer System)! Four joystick ports, four sound channels, four Player/Missile Graphics.
(read: four complex and four simple sprites; the simple sprites can be combined into a fifth complex sprite)
And they're still making games for it!

(and it's the only home computer sporting a text mode that actually supports true lower-case text! (as in descenders))

Comment: Re:New Doctor is mostly disappointing (Score 1) 170

by Daniel Klugh (#42011695) Attached to: The New Series of Doctor Who: Fleeing From Format?
The problem with "Manhatten" is there were times when angels were clearly looking at each other yet they didn't freeze each other. Also; how the hell did that guy torture and injure an angel? They're supposed to be invulnerable when frozen. As in Time doesn't pass for them. Then again, I guess he could've just've looked away or closed his eyes while stabbing it with a sword or spear.
(remember what happened to Prof. Swan when she got too close)

All generalizations are false, including this one. -- Mark Twain

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