The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

@Alex oh yeah sure, then you just flag one and say "also move all the others below to chat please :) " or something

@Alex In this case the comments were already in chat, so all that was needed was some deletion (which I've already done).

@Jenayah I've heard from Moderators (not on this site though) that it's easier if you just flag the post and explain that a whole bunch of comments need to be moved.

@Alex probably, that's what I was saying :) (albeit I was talking a comment rather than the post, but it boils down to the same idea)

@b_jonas For me, not really. I liked it, but that was it.

Now Heinlein I can reread at the drop of the slightest hint.

1:06 PM

@SQB Not for everyone, yeah.

@SQB I can understand that.

Also a number of non-sf works.

@SQB I found Heinlein a little difficult to get through (which.... is why I haven't finished it).

@SQB Right. We have Mythology SE, Literature SE, Movies & TV SE and more for them.

@Mithrandir which one?

@Mithrandir Which book was "it"?

1:07 PM

I wouldn't recommend starting with his later works.

@SQB Can't remember off the top of my head. If I remember I'll check in a new minutes. "The A... someting", I think.

Although I read Stranger in a Strange Land pretty early on.

@Alex Different mods have different preferences. I've seen mods asking for a single custom post flag, for a single comment flag, or for just flagging all the comments.

@Randal'Thor Good to know. What's your preference, if I may be so bold to ask?

@Alex I don't really mind. Whatever kind of flag, I'm likely to open the post in a new tab and check the context anyway.

Since you're asking, I guess I'd prefer a single flag.

1:10 PM

I recommend skipping Sixth Column / The Day After Tomorrow.

Multiple flags can make it hard to see the post itself, because they take up a lot of the screen.

@Mithrandir a very good one, halfway between his "juvies" and his later works, is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

My personal favourite, though, is Double Star.

@Randal'Thor Psssst... userscripts ;)

@Mithrandir And it had a strange band of protagonist, with perhaps a genius scientist and a time traveller and a computer and an old woman with maternal instincts who knows much more than he shows at first and perhaps a mature child too?

And definitely none of that stereotypical diabolical mastermind villain sending leagues of disposable henchmen at first then his trusted lieutenant but eventually meeting them himself in his lair when they proved worthy? Instead they just fight against the general unfairness and stupidity of the world?

And of course there's a cool spaceship.

Uhhh... I have no idea. I also can't seem to locate it at the moment, it appears to have been moved from the downstairs bookcase I left it on.

1:18 PM

I'm just trying to describe my impression of Heinlein books in general, from the little I know of them.

@Mithrandir Book thieves!

Nargles.

Probably siblings trying to "clean up" ;)

Banning book thieves sounds like a good job description for a Literature mod ;-)

I wouldn't ban The Book Thief.

1:22 PM

@Mithrandir HA! Eventually you will have to stand up and fight for the right of nobody touching your stuff as long as you keep it in your place of the house.

It's a rite of passage, unless you move out very early.

I had to do it eventually. I still remember the unfairness when my mother threw out my old collection of empty Tic Tac boxes, and a lot of other objects with it.

Nobody can touch my new collection of Tic Tac boxes now. Not that I actually need it, but after that, I just have to keep them.

*collects bottle caps* I can relate.

(Actually, I pay a cleaner now, so she alone can touch anything, but she's a trusted cleaner who won't disturb what isn't hers.)

*Silently nods in agreement*

It's me and the boys against my wife, actually.

@SQB on which "silly" collection? :p

Stuff in general.

1:27 PM

Also, now I have exactly as many lids as bases for the polyetilene food keep-fresh boxes, in each size. And I only had to reach at the exact same place where the small lids were hidden last time to find the two missing small lids.

That's a useful collection though.

@b_jonas ah, no, that can't possibly true. I refuse to believe there is one single house in this world where all the Tupperwares have their matching lids, or reversely. :p

@Jenayah I can't have socks in pairs though.

There's always odd ones. Or three identical ones.

The trick is to buy only one type of sock.

Multiple copies of the same one.

@b_jonas of course you have, it's easy. Just buy the same pair of socks 20 times. Once in a while the washing machine swallows one. But it's okay, because in a short while after, it will swallow another and then you're back with an even number of socks.

And that, folks, is how you teach modulos to kids.

What @Jenayah says.

1:31 PM

@Jenayah Doesn't work. I want everything from thin socks for summer to medium to thick socks for winter.

@Jenayah I use the clock.

The most I have of one type is three pairs IIRC.

@Randal'Thor it's not worth ruining your washing machine by putting a clock inside it to teach modulos. :p

@b_jonas sports socks in baskets all the way!

Though I guess winter is a bit more harsh for you guys, yeah.

@Jenayah Yeah, and "bathroom scale" is such a stupid idea now that they're all electronic. The wet environment just doesn't mesh with the electronic components. So I just keep my body weight scale in the living room now.

I think @Edlothiad agrees on the socks.

And even buys the same model as I do.

Or brand, at least.

1:36 PM

*deletes all the socks*

Donald.McLean

@Mithrandir Isn't that what dryers are for?

in The Sphinx's Lair, Jun 2 at 19:03, by Locutus of Borg

The sock revolution has begun! Of course, that could just be the dryer.

A propos of nothing, may I recommend the works of Tonke Dragt to the inhabitants of this Stack?

@SQB that sounds Dutch. Has it been translated?

I'm researching that now.

1:42 PM

@b_jonas bathroom scale what?

Would anyone be opposed to switching the new question feed back into oneboxes?

2

@Mithrandir what do you mean?

@Jenayah Home instrument to measure an adult human's body weight.

@b_jonas oh, okay!

Bathroom's enough to mess with the output?

Traditionally was mechanical, and in the bathroom because people measured their weight when undressed fully so they see more flattering low numbers.

1:43 PM

The Letter for the King has been translated into English.

@Jenayah No it just kills the electronics eventually.

Does it tell you you weight more than you actually do, or less? I have some roommates I'd like to prank with that.

Especially in my bathroom, for it has an open shower area, no cubicle or boundary at the top, only bounded by curtains, so a lot of water gets out.

Most translations seem to be into German.

@Jenayah So... for a while, there was a feed of new questions into the room, posted as chat messages, oneboxed versions of the questions. This was stopped and eventually turned into the ticker feed (that shows up in the top left) due to low activity in the room and the new question feed was flooding the room. However, I think there's now enough consistent activity to reinstate the onebox feed.

1:46 PM

Les Chevaliers du Roi is the French translation

I like her sf better, though.

@Mithrandir No, let's not do that. Everyone sees new questions on the main site anyway. Feed meta questions or some questions from Movies if you want (although it's really hard to filter the Movies questions to get all sci-fi and fantasy ones, we tried back then).

Well, what's the original title?

@b_jonas It's harder (or at least less natural) to start insightful discussions about main site questions this way, though.

@b_jonas Not everyone actually follows the front page of the main site.

But...chatroom do as chatroom please, I'm just a guest.

Highly downvoted questions don't appear on the homepage even when a new answer is posted?

1:50 PM

No.

@Alex Correct - something like -6 or something, I think? Don't remember exactly.

-4.

-8 on meta.

But they wouldn't be in the feed either if they're rather old (and if they're new, they're likely not below -3 yet).

(In case this was a related question.)

@Randal'Thor So my vote to bring it from -6 to -5 didn't help.

@Alex It did. It lessened the signal that the question is bad. Now it only takes two more people to agree with you.

1:51 PM

@NapoleonWilson I upvoted it.

Ah, I see the edit.

Which question?

Q: In the third Harry Potter movie, why did they save Buckbeak if he is already alive?

-5

Why did they go back in time to save Buckbeak if their future selves already saved Buckbeak?

Check the frontpage, muahahaha!

@Mithrandir I agree.

@Randal'Thor Wait, how'd you know?

Do you have secret moderator powers that show the downvoted posts?

1:53 PM

@Randal'Thor Oh god, better not think about that...

@Alex You make some good points in your answer, but I'm not sure if it really addresses what the OP was asking. They seem to be more confused about the nature of time travel than anything else.

@Alex questions > active > look for ones scored -5

(Also, could use a little more context and "what have you tried" really.)

probably

@Alex I checked your most recent answer ;-)

1:54 PM

@Randal'Thor That was agamble; I didn't actually say that I had answered it.

makes note to never assume i know what rand does

3

@Alex No, but it seemed likely.

@Alex Maybe bringing it up in chat didn't help either. ;-)

back

Oh, it's about the question feed?

That thing I ignored exactly two seconds after logging in that chatroom for the first time?

Yeah, I don't have a say for that matter

Well, you can't ingore the ticker, though.

1:56 PM

People can do whatever they want, I'll hide it, so I shouldn't be heard :)

@NapoleonWilson I robo-dismiss that, or hit F5

Tickers are annoying.

@SQB One for each foot is my policy.

@Mithrandir he's not named rand for nothing, you know.

@Randal'Thor Pretty impressive! 3 minutes after my original message you had already searched, found, read, and analyzed my answer.

Rand al'Random.

1:59 PM

Also, @SQB, noted! (for that book)

Rand al'Know'all.

...

@Jenayah Yeah, not her best, although her most translated and so best known.

Rand al Ghul... wait, wrong universe.

Heh!

2:00 PM

Shayol Ghul is in the right universe, and close enough.

Shai Hulud?

> His blood on the rocks of Shayol Ghul, washing away the Shadow, sacrifice for man's salvation.

Damn, that makes me sound like Jesus.

Shai Hulud - "My Heart Bleeds the Darkest Blood"

►

...onto the rocks of Shayol Ghul?

If it's so dark, not sure it can do much for washing away shadows, though.

Integrity - Humanity Is The Devil (Full Ep) - 1996

Although I much prefer Integrity.

►

2:07 PM

I don't know, I prefer the big long things, preferably with Kyle MacLachlan on top.

2

Loong

Do we have wormsign?

@NapoleonWilson r/nocontext

scifi.stackexchange.com/q/114861/4918 - wow. answer in the question post.

that's not something Sci Fi SE usually likes.

they want an answer post.

I know, archaic unnecessary shiboleth rules, but still.

I don't want to be the one to say it, but... cw? (ducks)

2:22 PM

quack

coin coin

Might be too late to do anything about it now.

If it had been noticed when the question was posted, we could have made a CW answer and have everyone edit in the new info.

Now any new answer would just languish at the bottom.

(I like how the French way of expressing quacking probably doesn't make any sense for non-French speakers, reading that from an English-language-based point of view. :) )

Makes total sense if you read it with French pronunciation though.

Also gives a new aspect to analysis of President Coin's name ;-)

Coin coin

@Randal'Thor not everybody knows French pronunciation ;D

2:28 PM

@SQB There's a ton of context in the discussion right above. ;-)

@NapoleonWilson there is, which I'll happily ignore.

@NapoleonWilson Everything on nocontext had a very legit context at some point. The point is precisely to ignore said context :D

I...don't know anything about the actual reddit thing, though. ;-)

Is the robots tag actually useful, or should I just let it slide if it's not already in the questino like scifi.stackexchange.com/q/117496/4918 ?

I thought it was just hipster speak for "no context". ;-)

2:30 PM

@NapoleonWilson I don't know anything about any actual Reddit thing :-)

@b_jonas would be useful there; there might be a robot expert out there.

@b_jonas The OP of that question is notoriously anti such tags, FWIW.

@SQB @b_jonas agreed

@SQB or just a robot enthusiast

(Also, I realise it's a typo, but I like "questino". Sounds like a Spanish hero or something.)

Which can be read both as someone who likes robots, and an enthusiastic robot.

2:32 PM

@Randal'Thor Yeah, I always do that.

@Jenayah well, yeah, expert / enthusiast / fan / aficionado.

@Randal'Thor question in Spanish is nothing like that :)

If I type my real name to sign an email, half the time it comes up with the last two letters reversed.

@Randal'Thor ah, I read that wrong then

Hey, maybe you were background-process-thinking of Quino?

scifi.stackexchange.com/q/117799/4918 "Which anime does this character come from? What is the genre? I'm trying to find more anime so that I don't run out of ones to watch." - currently tagged [character-id*]. Should I edit it to [story-id*] instead?

2:34 PM

Questino, the Stack Exchange hero - he'll answer your questions, amigo.

Quino

Joaquín Salvador Lavado, better known by his pen name Quino (Spanish: [ˈkino]; born 17 July 1932), is an Argentine cartoonist. His comic strip Mafalda (which ran from 1964 to 1973) is very popular in Latin America and many parts of Europe. == Biography == Joaquín Salvador Lavado was born in Mendoza, Argentina, on 17 July 1932. He was called "Quino" since childhood, to distinguish him from his uncle, the illustrator Joaquín, who helped to awaken his vocation of cartooning at an early age. In 1945, after the death of his mother, he enrolled and started his studies at Escuela de Bellas Artes...

@Jenayah Never heard of him. The only Argentine author I know is the great Borges.

@Randal'Thor "Sí."

Nah, it's more like a neutrino and such particles.

Kingon and queenon.

@Randal'Thor read Mafaldda strips sometimes, they're very good (not SFF though)

@b_jonas I'd go with character-identification since OP asks for the character

2:36 PM

@b_jonas Soliton is always the one that gets me.

Sounds like a fundamental particle, but it's actually a PDE or something.

@Jenayah Have you read the question text?

@b_jonas yeah

but tbh I don't think OP's actively looking for the anime title

just recommendations

the question isn't off topic though

Well, both tags can be used there I think

Why does he say "I'm trying to find more anime so that I don't run out of ones to watch." then?

@b_jonas mh?

@Jenayah "OP's looking for recommendations" and "the question isn't off topic" ... something sounds wrong there.

2:38 PM

Well, sounds to me like they just thought the character looked cool and they might want to look up the story

scifi.stackexchange.com/q/118028/4918 "To whom does each of these lightsabers belong?" (multiple lightsabers shown on an image). Should I add tag lightsaber?

(without having read it)

@Randal'Thor the char-id part is on topic

the recommendation is OT but can just be edited out

@Randal'Thor But he's specifically asking the one work that character appears in.

@b_jonas well, tbh scratch what I said earlier, both tags are ok

2:39 PM

@Jenayah Having looked at the question now: yeah, agreed.

(in the sense that 'I'd put both tags at once')

@b_jonas adding the lightsaber would be on point, I think

He's just telling his background for why he's asking. He's satisfied with just one that anime as an answer I think. Since there's a high prior chance that it's a TV series with two or three years' worth, it might take a few days to watch, or weeks if he is a responsible adult who has to work a job and raise a child and puts the priorities right and only watches the anime marathon in the remaining time after the children are asleep.

Ok, I'll compromise, and keep the character-id in.

Q: What to do when a vague identification question is off-topic, but the answer is on-topic?

Having read the close vote, I'm now torn

I mean... ok, white hair isn't that frequent, but what could be SFF here?

answer is on-topic though

This question was put on hold for being off-topic: Which anime are these images from? The question is a story-identification question with no details that make it on-topic, so putting it on hold was a solid decision. However, the answer (which I wrote in a comment) is a video game with a fantasy...

discussion

Donald.McLean

19

Q: Looking for a sci fi short story about space mutiny and a polite captain

Looking for a Sci-fi short story that I read once and would like to find again? It was about a spaceship where the captain is unusually polite in his verbal commands to the ship's AI, always saying "please" and "thank you." The crew records the captain's voice saying the codes to control the shi...

story-identification short-stories

There are two of these, one should be closed.

TheLethalCarrot

Nope

Different OPs, no accepts

2:52 PM

@Donald.McLean We can't close unless the OPs confirm :-/

Even though they're clearly the same.

@Randal'Thor OP did say in a deleted answer that they were looking for the same story, though

@Jenayah Yes, so he thinks it's the same story.

Which is why they were told to ask a new question, presumably from a generic "this does not provide an answer to the question, ask a new Q etc" review comment

@Randal'Thor sure, sure

@Jenayah No the comment was hand written, it wasn't a "generic review comment".

@Edlothiad ah ok, I honestly did not see that one before it was deleted :)

or at least not that I recall

2:59 PM

Well, it was around for 8 minutes and 7 seconds before the answer was deleted.

:)

^^

?

? ?

!

....?

3:03 PM

? ? > ! ... ??

(this is honestly starting to look like a PPCG answer)

(now to find the challenge asked... Jeopardy!)

@Jenayah We can just save the question by editing part of its text. Why close then?

Seriously, just remove the "I'm trying to find more anime so that I don't run out of ones to watch." if the chatter bothers you so much.

@b_jonas we don't, per the accepted answer of linked Meta question :)

@b_jonas it doesn't

3:17 PM

@Jenayah A meta answer with +2 score is hardly a community consensus. I warn you about the dangers of taking every meta post as gospel (you'll start to get confused).

@Edlothiad consensus, no, agreed

@Edlothiad Sure, but there's also the common sense argument: if an ID question doesn't describe SF/F elements, but the answer is on-topic, then it should be on-topic.

though the question at stake was kept open, and was presumably reviewed a lot due to it being linked on Meta, so well, it seems to be okay

Because they're actually describing a story which is SF/F, even if that wasn't obvious at first.

@Randal'Thor we have to define "describing" there

I mean, there are tons of "off-topic" questions which could be SFF, but aren't, based on what OP provided.

3:20 PM

(reworded slightly since that was ambiguous)

And they're still closed.

@Jenayah Yes, but if the OP provides evidence that they are SF/F, then we reopen.

@Randal'Thor yeah, but wasn't the case here, if I read that correctly

It was a "gimme teh namez"

Usually that evidence is in the form of an edit to the question (or a comment which becomes an edit), but it could also be accepting an answer.

@Randal'Thor ah, you included the "accepting part". Alright then!

3:22 PM

Technically, accepting an answer tells us more about the story than any edit :-P

Wait, no, not alright. There's no acceptance there.

3:35 PM

@Randal'Thor Off the top of my head, there are beta metas to reference if that's the conclusion you want to reach.

Out of interest, what does “^^” mean, @Jenayah

@Edlothiad well it's a smiley

Don't those things just mean "look at the above message" and by extension "I agree with that"?

@NapoleonWilson one would think so, but usage hasn’t been consistent.

like you know, Japanese-style 'cute face'

n_n

@NapoleonWilson Depends. It can mean that, or be a sweaty smiley.

3:46 PM

Nope, no idea.

Hmm, for that I'd expect some kind of mouth, though, like ^_^.

^_^ is a happy face

😄

That I understand

And a happy face without a mouth is sweet/cute? o_O

3:47 PM

@NapoleonWilson ah, I only use one Chinese hat for those

@Mithrandir sweaty version is ^^'

What’s a Chinese hat?

I thought people use two out of laziness because the key only reacts with the second one and most people don't delete that. ;-)

Those Japanese unicode things are super complicated. Kids these days...

@Edlothiad circumflex accent

everybody refers to them as Chinese hats here ahah

Just use emojis, they’re very clear what they mean

(in hindsight, that's not exactly appropriate)

@Edlothiad too lazy to go and copy-paste them

3:50 PM

Like switching arms with head silhouettes. t(-_-t)

I’m assuming because of the straw hats that are typical for paddy farmers

@Edlothiad yeah

Or just use your words.

@Jenayah I use one or more according to how far up the message I'm agreeing with is.

@Randal'Thor too lazy

@Edlothiad too lazy

3:59 PM

^^^

Q: Cartoon with a robot where a pilot would sit in its head

@Edlothiad also too lazy to count

:p

Related to what we were discussing earlier, I wouldn't out character-identification on this one, for instance

2

As a kid I fell in love with a certain cartoon and I just cannot think of the cartoon or robots name. It must not have been on very long. It had to be early 80's. I remember the robot having a controller... a pilot who would sit within the head of the robot and control it from there. I remember ...

story-identification character-identification robots cartoon

4:14 PM

@Jenayah Does "out" mean "throw out" or "put" (or something entirely different)?

@NapoleonWilson context?

aw crap

Typo, I meant "put"

Too late for edits:/

Too late for tears.

"Noooooooooooooooo!!!"

@Jenayah nooooooooooooooo.com

@Randal'Thor that is extremely useful!

I'll have to have a shortcut handy or something, because I'll never remember how much o's there are and I'm not bookmarking that one, but still!

4:29 PM

As useful as a sarcasm detector?

@NapoleonWilson c'mon, don't tease us and post that link already.

The Simpsons - Sarcasm detector

I had to find it first. ;-)

►

It's appreciated that you got the reference, though, provided we were after the same thing. ;-)

@NapoleonWilson we weren't, I was genuinely wondering what you had in mind :D

Not a Simpsons expert

Hmm, I guessed so. Your comment threw me off for a second, though. ;-)

hehe

4:36 PM

@Napoleon Since you're such a Simpsons fan, have you seen this?

Urgh, fortunately not. o_O

That's...horrible and addicting. Like a car accident.

Happy to be of service :-)

Q: Man invents legalese to English translator

Yeah, thanks.

Zaphod

4:50 PM

22

Classic sci-fi short story, can remember everything but the title. Almost certainly from the 50s or so. A guy invents a device that translates legal documents into plain English. He uses it on his next contract, realizes it's the traditional "We own your every thought" nightmare, refuses to sign...

story-identification short-stories

5:27 PM

First bounty offered. Get your Google-Fu going! :p

Corvo Attano

6:46 PM

@Jenayah it could be REALLY simply made (based on my knowledge of HTML

@CorvoAttano wait, what?

(also, note that the story is from the 50s ;D )

Corvo Attano

The button to link to the top of the answer

Or question

It could have a container/span tag and just text as a link; super easy to implemet

It could have a container/span tag and just text as a link; super easy to implement

Ooooh my bad I thought you were talking about that translator thing, given that you replied to my message about it

Corvo Attano

I was trying to reply to one a while ago

Also, yeah, indeed, I see where you're going now :)

6:51 PM

Hi guys. I've got more of the boring tagging questions. scifi.stackexchange.com/q/84478/4918 "Spider demon in Japanese folklore that feeds on human beings" (character-id) and scifi.stackexchange.com/q/118217/4918 "Character identification: folklore villainess with a coat made of live animals". folklore add? do we have a separate tag for Japanese folklore, or do we not do that because we're not Mythology and Folklore SE? (that site didn't exist back then.

@b_jonas did the tags exist back then?

Actually, it did exist back then, but was renamed to include "& Folklore" in the title in 2007-12-18

mythology.meta.stackexchange.com/revisions/308/4

Japanese folklore has been on topic on the site for a while, probably from the start, but it got the name later.

@b_jonas I meant "our" tags

@Jenayah Um, how do I check when the tag was created?

@b_jonas tag info, but I can do it I think, I'm not that lazy :p

6:55 PM

Yes, it existed, the tag wiki was edited in 2015

The questions are newer than the tag wiki

Just my opinion, but when it comes to the tags of an ID question, I only edit character-identification/story-identification, a "support" tag (books,short-stories etc) and leave the rest to OP, because I'm never really sure what they were looking for. I think if they had deemed the post to be tagged with whatever-relevant, they'd have done so.

Then again, it boils down to 1/ my personal guidelines, which aren't a policy of sorts and 2/ maybe asker didn't know how the tags worked

@Jenayah People could just post in Myth SE, where there are people studying all sorts of cultures.