The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

7:56 AM

5

Q: Is this a puzzle? If so, what is the solution?

In the 2032th xkcd comic Cueball utters a sentence that may (and probably does) contain a word puzzle. [Cueball and Megan standing together, musical notes hanging in the air as if music is played] Cueball: Parts of this aria were composed by Brian Eno's opera star au pair at the start...

SQB

8:20 AM

@b_jonas you're going above the call of duty there.

b_jonas

9:53 AM

@TheLethalCarrot What counts as proper thick home-cut fries? Is it fried in a deep frier, in a pan in thick oil, or in a convection oven? What shape are the pieces? Is there some other important requirement than peeling and cutting the potato and frying it?

Edlothiad

@b_jonas Anything that resembles something similar to this if not this:

Be it crispier, more round, skin on, burnt, whatever.

Also I believe the parsing is (proper thick)(home-cut)..., not (proper)(thick, home-cut)... Meaning something different to what you seem to have understood.

The above would be opposed by these:

Which aren't cut by hand, are uniformly narrow and shaped.

b_jonas

@NapoleonWilson Or that's the theory at least. But scifi.stackexchange.com/q/117078/4918 is closed because the answer turns out to be non-fantasy, even though I had some reason when asking the identification that it may be fantasy. Not that the closing matters, because I already got a satisfying answer.

@Edlothiad Ok, but how is it fried? It's not obvious to tell from just the photo to me, I'd have to taste it.

SQB

Does this count as home-cut?

b_jonas

10:08 AM

It's probably not oven-baked because it's wrapped in paper, but I can't tell if it's supposed to be deep-fried.

SQB

Or do you actually mean hand-cut?

Oven fries do exist and will do in a pinch, but aren't quite the same.

Also, Flemish mayonaise. "Zaanse" (Zanish?) if Flemish is not available.

b_jonas

@Randal'Thor Yeah. Even Earth Science SE allows them, despite that they get mostly terrible ID questions, worse than Sci Fi.

It's Arquade that banned most ID questions.

SQB

Ah, @Jenayah, I was going to direct you towards Rotterdam, but it seems Bram Ladage has expanded to include a shop in Delft.

ladage.nl/delft-centrum

b_jonas

Oh, and more importantly, Movies SE have banned all identification questions. That's important because otherwise that's where we'd migrate some non-fantasy ID questions.

The book ones we can migrate to Literature, such as literature.stackexchange.com/q/6064/139

@Randal'Thor Like scifi.stackexchange.com/q/176043/4918 ? :-)

SQB

Sadly, while they make very good fries, they do not seem to carry Flemish mayonaise.

b_jonas

10:19 AM

@Randal'Thor Certainly. Darths & Droids has people with various accents, most importantly space french and space japanese and space italian, but there are more, even though it happens in a Galaxy Far Far Away with translation convention from Common.

@Jenayah Oh, Anime SE too? You missed Arquade though, which hasn't banned them entirely but has serious restrictions put on them and banishes other types of ID questions on sight.

@NapoleonWilson Hmm. Do we have an SE site for fine arts (especially paintings) or numismatics (old coins) or stamp collecting? We on hu.Wikipedia refdesk sometimes get very stupid ID questions on coins, stamps, and paintings from desperate hopeful people who found something on the cellar of their dead relative, usually asking "how much is it worth" rather than what it is, but sometimes both at the same time. They're typically very vague, giving just a very short description with no photo.

Edlothiad

@b_jonas Is it relevant?

I struggle to see the necessity in this having to be one specific single thing.

If it's larger, a bit less uniformly cut, with sometimes skin on, sometimes skin off, it's the former. If it's thinner, straight, more uniform, often without skin, perfectly rectangular, it's the latter. Whether it's baked, fried, roasted, boiled, microwaved, seared, thrown out a window to hit the ground, doesn't seem extremely relevant.

b_jonas

10:34 AM

@Edlothiad So it can be either deep-fired or pot-fried and you still call it "proper"? That's an answer too.

Edlothiad

You seem to have completely missed my comment on the phrasing of the word proper.

34 mins ago, by Edlothiad

Also I believe the parsing is (proper thick)(home-cut)..., not (proper)(thick, home-cut)... Meaning something different to what you seem to have understood.

b_jonas

Ah, ok.

So it's just the cut that matters.

Edlothiad

The size of the fry, generally

home-cut is usually associated with larger, less uniform cuts, because your ma isn't going to spend hours slicing them perfectly.

The "elegant" restaurants (all restaurants try to seem as elegant as they can) will normally just go to the shops and buy some frozen ones to reheat (that's a joke, I hope).

b_jonas

11:02 AM

@Randal'Thor DIY has identification questions? What are the tags?

@Randal'Thor Hah! That proves that books are better than films.

@Jenayah When was that? Was it back when there were only five television channels available at home, or now when you can watch films on fifty?

@lephe Not an easy way. You can star it and then later check under your userpage then activity tab then favourites tag then sort by activity.

SQB

11:32 AM

in SFF community cleanup room, 50 secs ago, by SQB

Questions containing rogue but not tagged [rogue] (excluding a number of other tags).

in SFF community cleanup room, 25 secs ago, by SQB

I think about 50 of those could be tagged rogue.

(If anyone feels like tagging).

in SFF community cleanup room, 9 secs ago, by SQB

Note that I'm not saying that they should all be tagged rogue; merely that they're candidates for that tag.

Mithrandir

Do we.... really need that character tag?

SQB

I think she has / had her own series, so it should double as a franchise tag.

Other than that, major character of the X-men franchise? Sure, why not.

If Dobby has one, why wouldn't she?

Mithrandir

I kinda dislike all character tags ;)

SQB

Actually, in cases like this, where a character appears across multiple (sub-) franchises, it does make sense to me.

Interesting: even if the search input doesn't accept any more characters, the URL itself has no such limitations.

Edlothiad

11:54 AM

Do we really need any tags besides the universe and work tags? (excluding story-id, it's medias and subgenres).

names, inspiration, back-story, etc. All are very clearly conveyed in the post of the question and don't really provide that much aid when searching.

SQB

Some of those need to go, but perhaps not all.

To me, the litmus test is the question if one can be an expert in that subject.

I don't think there will be any "inspiration" or "back story" experts.

For "names", I'm not so sure. Perhaps not names, but one can be an expert in (constructed) languages and as such in names.

doppelgreener

Technically you don't need any tags

SQB

In general — excluding story-identification and its related tags — yes, there can be tags that are neither franchise, work, nor author tags, yet relevant.

doppelgreener

Tagging is a folksonomy though: what someone thinks is worth categorising gets categorised

Rand al'Thor

@b_jonas There are also questions specifically about accents. I've posted one about Deanna Troi and one about Londo Mollari.

@b_jonas I don't think so, no.

@b_jonas They don't seem to have a specific tag for ID questions; I just found a lot using this search.

@Edlothiad I like these kinds of tags. Admittedly it's hard to be an expert in names or inspiration in general, but I can't be the only one who finds it fascinating to browse through all real-location or accent questions, regardless of universe/work.

SQB

12:18 PM

Or props.

I can even imagine people being an expert in that.

Rand al'Thor

Yeah, like someone who's actually worked as a prop manager (or whatever they call it - the film industry has some strange names).

Edlothiad

12:35 PM

@Randal'Thor The point was, just because you don't like them doesn't give you reason to go tag hating.

Rand al'Thor

@Edlothiad Ah, I thought you were making the opposite point. Poe's law strikes again!

SQB

Had me fooled too.

(FYI: done editing Rogue questions)

Rand al'Thor

1:03 PM

@SQB Tut tut, 6/15 on the front page ;-)

SQB

Which is why I'm letting y'all know I'm done.

So we can go back to discussing fries.

Rand al'Thor

What's the difference between a Germanic dragon slayer and a castle attackers' McDonalds?
One is Siegfried and the other serves Siege fries.

SQB

That... may the worst pun I've ever seen.

Rand al'Thor

bows

Edlothiad

Ok, so how is The Truman Show on-topic.

Loong

1:13 PM

@Randal'Thor Now I wonder how you pronounce Siegfried.

Edlothiad

Someone elsewhere suggested because of the weather, but none of the weather suggested sci-fi.

SQB

It depicts a (near future) dystopia, one made possible through technological advancements.

Edlothiad

Does it depict a near future dystopia?

What technological advancements?

Nothing about the film suggests dystopia?

Unless I watched the wrong film.

Rand al'Thor

@Loong "seeg-freed", but when I first saw the name as a child, I thought it was "see-EGG-fried".

SQB

A personal dystopia, perhaps.

Rand al'Thor

1:15 PM

OK, the joke only works in written form.

SQB

The dome containing the Truman show is larger than any man-made structure, by some orders of magnitude.

Edlothiad

I'm not sure how it would be a personal dystopia either. For the first 20+ years he seemed pretty darn content

SQB

They do have weather simulation / control within the dome.

Edlothiad

Larger than an man mad structure =/= science-fiction. Simply hasn't been built.

They simulated the same weather to create the film.

SQB

Most dramatic example being the storm in the film's climax.

Edlothiad

1:18 PM

The lightning is the one place i'll concede afaia that isn't possible.

Rand al'Thor

@Edlothiad Wikipedia and IMDB say it's sci-fi, which fits point 1 here.

Edlothiad

I miss spoke above.

SQB

That meta mentions A Clockwork Orange, which is a good comparison.

Edlothiad

I mean to say "Ok, so how is TTS sci-fi-nal"

SQB

Not thematically, but the level of technology.

Edlothiad

1:21 PM

I'm not seeing anything sci-fi-nal in the tech either.

SQB

> Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology. —Asimov

The changes in science and technology here being the ability to simulate an entire world. (World as in "surroundings"; not necessarily an entire planet).

Skooba

a town at least

i thought it was a nice social commentary combing reality shows and people who never leave their home town

SQB

> Science fiction is fiction based upon some imagined development of science, or upon the extrapolation of a tendency in society. —Davenport (emphasis mine)

Skooba

thats seems very vague

SQB

> 1. The conditions must be, in some respect, different from here-and-now, although the difference may lie only in an invention made in the course of the story. 2. The new conditions must be an essential part of the story. 3. The problem itself—the "plot"—must be a human problem. 4. The human problem must be one which is created by, or indispensably affected by, the new conditions. 5. [not relevant here] —Heinlein

Skooba

1:30 PM

so any story set in the future is science fiction?

SQB

> A science fiction story "is one that presupposes a technology, or an effect of technology, or a disturbance in the natural order, such as humanity, up to the time of writing, has not in actual fact experienced." —Crispin

Speculative fiction.

In the case of The Truman Show, the technological advancements aren't that big, but rather an extrapolation of (then) current technology and patterns (such as reality shows).

A number of Black Mirror episodes do not need any technological advancements at all, yet taken as a whole, it is considered sf.

doppelgreener

1:59 PM

@SQB There's the Black Mirror episode where peoples' lives get affected by their social ranking (from 1-5), which only requires an app we could produce today, and for society to restructure itself around that app.

SQB

@doppelgreener the very first episode, "The National Anthem", does not require any technological advancements whatsoever.

zabeus

that was a terrible episode

doppelgreener

My understanding of science fiction has been that it is about exploring what the world could be like, and exploring where we can go from here and what it could mean for ourselves.

SQB

@zabeus depends on how you feel about pigs.

doppelgreener

with some wibbly wobbly "know it when i see it" ideas at some edges.

zabeus

2:16 PM

:D

SQB

2:27 PM

@Randal'Thor can you rename truman-show to the-truman-show, which is the proper name of the film?

b_jonas

@Randal'Thor Thanks.

Jenayah

2:45 PM

@b_jonas to be honest, I watch television so often that I have absolutely no idea if my mother signed up for a "get extra channels" thing.

Black Mirror is considered SF?

TheLethalCarrot

My Google sense say yes

Jenayah

Probably haven't watched enough of it then

zabeus

yeah on the whole it is, although some eps are not

but there's usually some advanced tech and an exploration of how that affects society

Jenayah

alright

Donald.McLean

3:03 PM

Greetings, Earthlings.

zabeus

Greetings, Donald.McLean.

Edlothiad

8 comment upvotes, and three replies to post an answer and it gets downvoted, interesting or as others would say “*sigh*”

2

Donald.McLean

@SQB I love pigs. Pigs are cute and tasty.

@SQB While true, the construction of a facility of that size would throw the movie either well into the future or an alternate universe - both of which are SFnal.

SQB

@Donald.McLean which I agree with.

Donald.McLean

Because the facility was built when Truman was a baby - 30 years in the past of the depicted action.

Not to mention the time needed to build a facility of that size - not something that happens overnight.

Jenayah

3:13 PM

@Donald.McLean good observation

albeit from the "we can create a storm" part, it still kind of boils down to "it's SFFnal because it would cost more money than we could ever allow to it right now", I think

And then again, for the storm part... Big fans, big flashes... I can imagine something along those lines

Donald.McLean

@Jenayah I was in the middle of typing a comment about that.

Jenayah

Upvoted however because well yeah, it's even more SFFnal for the time when it was made

And even so, I think most of that stuff was doable 20 years ago - just need a shitton of money.

If I may, @Edlothiad, I honestly think you should add that picture you linked to in your answer, but it's just my opinion :)

@Jenayah Boop

@TheLethalCarrot meh

@Jenayah ugh

3:23 PM

I still think it's better when the poster does it by themselves 'cause it's your answer so you decide what you want it to look like (peer review, sure, but it's not a big deal there)

but hey

TheLethalCarrot

My sources are telling me an update is in the works

Jenayah

Hum.

Maybe "your sources" should rather focus on their internship.

TheLethalCarrot

I believe my sources are on the train and have left for the day so all is good :P

Jenayah

Oh so on top of slacking, your sources finish at 4pm?

TheLethalCarrot

They do start earlier than 9am though

Jenayah

3:27 PM

well uh

yeah?

So what?

TheLethalCarrot

Well 9-5 is "normal hours", 8-4 is same length

Jenayah

...

8-6 is normal hours ._.

How long does the lunch break last for you Brits?

TheLethalCarrot

I've only ever worked 9-5 and most people I know do the same

Though I work 9-5.30

And get an hour lunch break

Jenayah

woot

TheLethalCarrot

And the company buys in the food so it's technically free food :P

Jenayah

3:29 PM

WHAT

TheLethalCarrot

And only work 9-5 on Fridays

I work in a pretty cool small company

Jenayah

s'long as you enjoy it it's fine I guess

TheLethalCarrot

Aye, it's <10 employees so can get super stressful but the day to day work is good

Jenayah

Eh as long as they're organized it's fine

TheLethalCarrot

Mostly organised haha

Jenayah

3:33 PM

Small company here too, didn't know what it would be like; well, you finally understand what hell is like when only one guy knows how to fix all the issues and said guy is on holiday when shit happens...

TheLethalCarrot

Bus factor of 1 is incredibly shitty

Jenayah

I am never, ever, ever producing any undocumented code again thinking "meh it's understandable, they'll get it".

Edlothiad

@Jenayah I work 6:50 to 4:50 thank you very much....

One might find that equates to an 8-6.

Jenayah

@Edlothiad hum, several years of math studies tell me that yes, it might equals that :D

TheLethalCarrot

@Jenayah One of our developers recently left, good coder but damn is their code over complicated and hard to follow

Jenayah

3:36 PM

Wasn't judging tho, don't take it personally :p 'course the normal hours are bound to shift between countries, lunch break duration etc etc

> It might be genius, but it's unmaintainable.

From workplace.stackexchange.com/a/111254

Edlothiad

I take 20 minutes for lunch. I'm currently on 9h40m of timed work

Lol

TheLethalCarrot

It is maintainable to a point, it's just awkward. I know the phrase though and it is a good one

Jenayah

@Edlothiad I'm sorry. Of timed what? :p

zabeus

@Jenayah in america "normal" hours are all over the place. i have heard of the mythical "9-5" job but it seems far from typical (but most work schedules are somewhere close to that)

Jenayah

@zabeus America is countries inside a country, doesn't count ahah

(we're talking America as US right?)

zabeus

3:41 PM

yeah, and i meant within the same state even, it's not regulated at all

Jenayah

ahah

'murica fu_be nice :p_ yeah

zabeus

8-5 with unpaid hour lunch is somewhat common

Donald.McLean

I had a run of over a year where I didn't record 80 hours of work on my time card, between sick leave, holidays, and vacation. But we have atypically good benefits.

Jenayah

6:05 PM

Poke @lephe you might want to take a shot at this one ;D

0

Q: Can the Logrus move under someone trying to walk it?

All the descriptions that I remember of the Logrus describe it as "constantly moving" or similar, does this mean that someone walking it has to move fast before the area they're standing on moves out from under them and, given what happens if you step off the Pattern having started, they get dest...

chronicles-of-amber roger-zelazny

lephe

6:35 PM

@Jenayah You're right, I'll have a close look :)

Jenayah

hehe

lephe

(I don't think it matters if it takes some time before I can answer?)

vzn

@Edlothiad re dystopian, Truman show reminds me of the so called panopticon which shows up in some SF en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon also compared to the modern "surveillance state" etc, also after 2 decades of reality shows it doesnt look as strange/ foreign/ otherworldly as it did at the time...

Jenayah

6:52 PM

@lephe nah, as long as the answer is relevant you can take years if you want :)

lephe

Perfect! That's because I first need an English version of the book... xD

As well as a search tool because paper versions don't have Ctrl+F. So unfortunate.

Jenayah

7:03 PM

@lephe honestly, you can post it in French and translate it, I think, even if it would be better to have the original, sure

lephe

Right now I only have a French paper version, which is a bit light... ^^'

Edlothiad

7:29 PM

@vzn wouldn’t know, I was still but a wee lad

vzn

8:00 PM

@Edlothiad yesterdays SF is todays reality! aka the future is already here, its just not evenly distributed --GIbson

lephe

8:19 PM

Damn, I went through all mentions of the Logrus in the original series and there's no description of someone negotiating it. :(

Jenayah

@lephe try to make up an answer which would point towards the "no, but..." then :)

lephe

Well, I'm pretty sure I've read a Logrus negotiation scene. It might be in the other books that were written by John Gregory Betancourt based on Zelazny's notes, after he died.

I did take notes of what's mentioned in the original series, but there's not much to add on Zeiss Ikon's answer right now.

Jenayah

I'm gonna take your word for it ahah

lephe

Got to make it a decent answer!

Jenayah

That's the spirit! >:D

lephe

9:00 PM

So I remembered wrong.

Rand al'Thor

9:21 PM