Whatever happened to the still beating heart of a virgin? No one has any standards anymore.

Giles ,'Lies My Parents Told Me'


Natter 46: The FIGHTIN' 46  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


§ ita § - Aug 11, 2006 7:09:25 am PDT #2054 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Salad shooters were a nonchalance ploy. We don't have the provocation for that right now. What we do have is a hunger for knowledge and a thirst for trivia.

there are a million small mistakes that the CEO keeps finding.

Shouldn't everything be bright and shiny clean before the CEO sees it? I'm managing a project for whom I'll also be a user, as will my boss. I'm insisting on QAing before she gets her hands on it, since I'm a less scary person to hear about bugs from. It's amazing how much resistance this protection ploy is meeting from the very people who'll get their asses held to the fire by management if it's not shiny. And it's been quite not shiny the times I've gotten my hands on it so far.

Maybe we drop them on a level dirt field in a time-free zone, and have translators tell each combatant that to get back to their time/family/freshly-killed aurochs, they need to kill the opponent.

Works for me. I pick astronaut.


tommyrot - Aug 11, 2006 7:12:35 am PDT #2055 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Maybe we drop them on a level dirt field in a time-free zone, and have translators tell each combatant that to get back to their time/family/freshly-killed aurochs, they need to kill the opponent.

With the appropriate Star Trek music playing over loudspeakers.


JenP - Aug 11, 2006 7:13:31 am PDT #2056 of 10001

I read it in your quote-back this morning, and heard, "Physician, heal thyself." Words to live by, or caffeine deficit?

Nah - just a chapter or footnote in the book, see. Or, yeah, maybe just a good couple of cups of coffee...

I have no input on caveman vs. astronaut. Or salad shooters.


sumi - Aug 11, 2006 7:15:18 am PDT #2057 of 10001
Art Crawl!!!

Ms.Havisham and Cabil: congratulations on the new work situations!


msbelle - Aug 11, 2006 7:15:32 am PDT #2058 of 10001
I remember the crazy days. 500 posts an hour. Nubmer! Natgbsb

the problem has been that we are being asked to cut schedule times over and over and over again and Q/A is getting kicked out of the equation. when we ask people to look things over before going live, we almost always get NO feedback (including from the CEO), then a day or two after it is live, things will get noticed. It is growing and speeding up pains.


juliana - Aug 11, 2006 7:16:12 am PDT #2059 of 10001
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…

Oh, just tazer them, declare yourself a god and be done with it.

Heh. This was Tim's response. "All you need is a well-timed eclipse and a laser gun" and they're toast.

This! Is! My BOOMSTICK!


§ ita § - Aug 11, 2006 7:17:52 am PDT #2060 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

It is growing and speeding up pains.

We've recently clamped down big time on process. People freak out at the schedules, but as project manager I just shrug and say "Do you want to be the one that nixes testing?" And no one really wants to take that on themselves. So we have hella testing, and hella controls on moving code from one stage to the next. Yeah, people are pissed. But the people that get pissed if stuff goes out wrong are people that can get us all fired.


DavidS - Aug 11, 2006 7:22:43 am PDT #2061 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

I think the key to an astronaut v. caveman battleground is that you each give them the advantages of their own defining characteristics. Else why say "astronaut" instead of "modern human"? Why say "caveman" instead of "aboriginal hunter"?

Even beyond that, I think the key philosophical question here is: "who wins in a fight between a fit military engineer who can create weapons and has knowledge of battle strategies, or an experienced hunter and killer who is probably stronger?"

So a superior alien race is having Sweeps week and have pay-per-view gladiatorial combat. They grab an astronaut and a caveman and drop them into the battle zone. They implant the knowledge that two enter and only one leaves to be returned home. The battle zone looks like a park, but has a number of buildings in it. The buildings have tools. The caveman has access to the kind of stones he uses in making spears and slings and stone age weaponry. The combatants are given two days to make their gear and then they're loosed to hunt.

So, can the astronaut build something in that period of time that will give him an advantage over the caveman's superior hunting skills and strength? I say give the astronaut the equipment he'd find in the average garage and he could make a crossbow pretty easily. He could also better create traps for the caveman, who we will coincide is not only a better hunter, but more used to killing.

Now that's a scenario where I think you're making the distinct advantages of caveman v. astronaut clear.


§ ita § - Aug 11, 2006 7:26:52 am PDT #2062 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

why say "astronaut" instead of "modern human"? Why say "caveman" instead of "aboriginal hunter"?

Because modern human doesn't imply former military as Allyson was assuming, and aboriginal hunters would be pretty pissed at being equated with cavemen on many levels.

I say give the astronaut the equipment he'd find in the average garage and he could make a crossbow pretty easily. He could also better create traps for the caveman, who we will coincide is not only a better hunter, but more used to killing.

I don't see it. Why does being an astronaut translate into complex weapon creation and trapping? Why are we conceding that the caveman is more used to killing people?


tommyrot - Aug 11, 2006 7:29:27 am PDT #2063 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

These days, not all astronauts are military/ex-military.