@Green That can be arranged

@MikeL. This is exactly right. Modern steel is so significantly better that folding and forge welding isn't really necessary.

@James Well, forge welding has a plethora of other uses, too.

The exception to that being damascus steel which is two types of steel that you alternately layer then forge-weld together, creates cool patterns and is excellent blade steel.

@MikeL. oh for sure but the whole, folding = stronger isn't as relevant anymore

@MikeL. sorry, I did not want to copy your answer, but as people were commenting on it and Serban added it in his question, I edited in a bit of optic in my answer.

@James Thank you

@James Pattern-welded steel, you mean. Damascus steel is a mystical material, the secret of which has been lost to history. Or maybe not, but we don't know which of the three candidates is the real damascus:)

this stuff is so cool. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_steel

@MikeL. True, pattern welded, commonly known as damascus steel though the original recipe is unknown.

@James And well, pattern-welded steel is better than what you get out of a bloomery, but can't hold a candle to spring-tempered crucible steel, in favour of which it was eventually dropped.

@James Also, if you like pretty pattern-welded swords, check out this guy's work: templ.net/english/weapons-antiquity_and_early_middle_age.php

Ill have to look at home they don't want me looking at weapons at work apparently.

@James Right, HR might start inquiring whether you're perhaps dissatisfied with your work environment.

@MikeL. as it happens...

I have something like 12 applications out at the moment.

I had to put a spreadsheet together to keep track of them all...

@James Good luck with that, then. I've already signed a contract, but it's up to the US government whether I'll actually get to start or not.

That can take a while...I was in the Air Force for a decade and yeah...things can move real real slow.

@James When I was unemployed I kept having to tell myself "The wheels of HR turn ever so slowly."

@Green There is nothing...or very few things more irritating than looking for a job.

@James working a bad job is one of them :P

@AndreiROM I dunno if I agree with that or not...its a close race

@James It won't help to think of it this way but remember that HR is a bureaucracy and a bureaucracy's job is to not get things done by saying "No."

@James It's probably not helped by the fact that I may or may not have a black dot next to my name at the embassy.

This is my current command format. (Anything enclosed in square braces is optional):

verb [-parameter|-parameter=value|-parameter="value"]* [[subject|regex|list]:]* [object|regex|list]*

There's some funny business around the colon at the end of subject but I'm not sure how to work that out yet. If there are subjects then there must be a colon seperator. If no subjects then no colon.

how do you tell object and no subject from subject and no object?

@DaaaahWhoosh That is a very good question that I don't have an answer to yet. Thank you for pointing that out.

Well, if you specify a subject then an object must be specified, even if that object is the set of all objects represented by the keyword 'all'.

If no subject is stated then implicitly, you're talking about the object.

so you can never just have a subject?

also, did our new ads just go live? I've never noticed them before

@DaaaahWhoosh Just a subject means that you are declaring state about an object. But in the context of a command set intended to display or alter the state of a system, a subject alone doesn't seem to be very useful.

If you want to change state on just a subject, then implicitly the subject becomes the object.

If: >=1 subject & >=1 object then explicitly state both seperated by a colon.

if: 0 subject & >=1 object then explicitly state object

if: >=1 subject & 0 object then I'm not sure what this is attempting to convey except the operation of the verb on all objects by the subject.

if: 0 subject and 0 object then the verb would be applied to all objects by an implicit universal object.

In the subject only case, it seems to make sense to force the player to acknowledge the scope of their action by typing 'all'.

I'll have to think about it some more.

Really good point though.

New ads? did not notice. I am an evil blocker, muhahaha!

yeah, I've seen one for the blog, one for Writers... and one for Mi Yodeya

ha! mermaid breasts got me a notable question.

@Green all mermaid breasts ever got me was a restraining order

@DaaaahWhoosh wince ouch. :)

@Hohmannfan I use adblockers, but I have seen SE internal ads. I have seen one for writers and one for the blog

@bilbo_pingouin I saw a few when we was discussing the design of an Astronomy ad over at the Space Exploration chat

The astronomy chat room has problems:

yeah there are a few chats quite empty... Politics and Economics aren't very busy

really?

People are not discussing ... politics?

More proof the WB is the place to be...

at least for me. :)

well these days, I've been to a few chats

and secse, is pretty busy..

PoSE was last used 4 days ago... and EcSE 44 days ago

What is the proper way of abbreviating "space exploration stack exchange"?

SxSE ?

@Hohmannfan anything that keeps the x should be fine

oooh... am I immature, or should it be SExSE?

it's SExSE and they know it

reminds me of why they changed the name of the network to avoid the URL "expertsexchange.com"

@Hohmannfan ha! that would certainly give the wrong impression.

There are actually someone using that URL, but they include a hyphen. experts-exchange.com

@Green Eh, it's not the worst. You had things like the nursery at Mole Station, or the Italian branch of PowerGen.

@Green Yeah, same.

@DaaaahWhoosh I believe some of the regulars like to use that a lot.

@Hohmannfan We're not antisocial; we're . . . um . . . concise.

The downside of having an active chat room (i.e. Worldbuilders' General Chat) is that it's inconvenient kind of hard impossible to catch up on the entire transcript if you only check once a day, or so. . .

yeah, you do not have the same problem with irc

@HDE226868 I've never had the expectation of being able to keep up with all WB General chat traffic.

Also, Hey @HDE226868, it's been a while.

@Green Yeah, good to see you!

How are classes going?

I'm designing an ejection seat.

@Green Pretty good. I'm now a "second-semester senior", so my grades now don't matter in theory. In practice, they still do; offers of admission have been rescinded. And I do have the self-respect to keep going.

Aside from that . . . track started this week, I did well in the state Science Olympiad tournament Tuesday, and I have my first job interview this Saturday.

Hooray! What kind of job is it?

I'd be assisting with a summer camp at the nature center in the nature reservation that's partly in my town. 8-4 hours all summer. Each class has a Naturalist, an Assistant, and a Volunteer. I volunteered last summer for a few weeks; this year, I'll hopefully work as an assistant.

The camp varies - there are different sessions kids do, three hours per day for five days a week, or even a full day with two sessions - from hiking to studying animals to learning about the Native Americans who lived in the area.