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12:29 AM
0
Q: 1980s or earlier fantasy novel series, female warrior main character

Mister HaltI'm looking for the title of a fantasy novel series I read a few books of when I was younger. At this point all I can really remember is that the female warrior protagonist MIGHT have been called Raven or something similar, and the covers tended to show her half naked in her warrior getup, wieldi...

 
 
1 hour later…
1:53 AM
5
A: Live: Left nav, new theming and responsiveness

Pandyadiscussion So, finally the Badges tab have been dropped? I earlier discussed Why do "Badges" have their own tab in the navigation?; now I don't find the tab for Badges in new navigation. Is it dropped due to redundancy or any other spacing issue or will be added later

 
2:06 AM
0
Q: Why did Dumbledore allow Alastor Moody to join the reconstituted Order of the Phoenix (in book 5)?

Ken_To_2018After all, Alastor Moody was locked into a trunk for the whole year in Book 4 (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). Seeing this, Dumbledore should realize that Alastor Moody's duelling skills have gone rusty, and is no longer able to protect himself. Why did Dumbledore allow Alastor Moody to j...

 
2:54 AM
0
Q: Where is Starling City?

user105155In S2 E13 of the Arrow, Felicity pulls up an image of a car that was used in the robbery of snake venom from a zoo. The car's license plate read "KAZ 547". She states that the car is a rental and the address for the rental spot was somewhere in the Glades. Now, a "KAZ" on license plates indica...

 
 
1 hour later…
4:00 AM
@SQB You can tell by the unique badge shape:
 
4:11 AM
But not every site has unique badge shapes, so this doesn't necessary work elsewhere.
 
0
Q: What’s the name of the movie where earth gets a new sun and people get sick and turn blue?

ChelseaIn the 90s( could have been filmed earlier) I believe I watched a movie where scientists start to discover earth is going to be getting a new sun that is brighter then our original sun. Around the same time some people start getting sick - eventually they turn blue and lose their hair almost like...

0
Q: Was Bob Howard always intended to be BOFH?

muruIn The Jennifer Morgue, Bob Howard's middle names are revealed to be Oliver and Francis, making his full name Robert "Bob" Oliver Francis Howard. If we take Bob as the first name, his initials become BOFH. Later on, in Pimpf, the reference is strengthened by the appearance of Peter-Fred Young, th...

 
4:44 AM
Though interestingly, the system seems to have gotten confused about badge shapes in my Achievements tab:
Scratch that. Apparently, it just uses the shape of whichever site you're currently on, regardless of which site the badge is from:
 
2
Q: Sci fi book about Earth being annihilated and survivor fleet escapes

Danny3414I only read this about a year ago but I was on a heavy reading binge and a lot of the details have got lost amongst other stories. Basic points: Earth (and her offshoot colonies) are playing off 3 or 4 hostile alien empires against each other but suspicions are forming with the main player. A f...

 
 
1 hour later…
SQB
5:58 AM
@Alex yeah, there's a meta about that. Th unavoidable, because you'd either have to have one monster stylesheet with all the badges for all Stacks, or you'd have to load all stylesheets for all Stacks.
 
6:09 AM
0
Q: Help Identifying an Early to mid 1960s Era Possible Sci-fi or Horror Movie or Show from Two Scenes Only

hrhI still retain memories of a movie or show I saw in early childhood which may be of the science fiction or horror genres but I can only recall two distinct scenes. I am hoping that some details from these scenes will spark recognition in one or more members here. The first scene I recall feature...

 
6:26 AM
Has anyone ever had a tag score that was higher than their total reputation?
 
@Alex I reckon it's mathematically possible
With the repcap
 
@Jenayah But highly improbable. You'd have to averaging above 200 upvotes per day (in one tag), without even taking into account acceptances or bounties.
 
@Alex well it wouldn't last long and mainly affect new users but it's possible
 
@Jenayah Indeed.
Interesting – I currently have two computers open and the pings are coming in at different times.
Alternatively, if the person got a lot of downvotes in other tags.
 
SQB
6:41 AM
> "Zap's back, baby, Zap's back."
 
0
Q: The rebels used Y-wings of the blue squadron in the battle of Scariff?

GaweyIn the film Rogue One i can't see any y-wing helping the x-wings and the u-wings in the surface of the planet, but when i searched it for example in this wiki, i found that blue squadron have y-wings and the source of this information is the "Star Wars: Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide". So ...

 
 
1 hour later…
8:04 AM
@Jenayah I can't use mobile just the full site on mobile
 
SQB
8:29 AM
@Jenayah yeah, I could actually see myself doing reviews on mobile. So that's a plus for the new design.
 
With the review buttons looking like they do on mobile?
I opened up a LQP review first and thought all the buttons were disabled haha
 
9:07 AM
2
Q: Short story about a man finding out his (ex?)wife is a rebel leader of a robotic society

Evan BI've been trying to google this for years. I'm pretty sure I read it in a short story collection, but don't remember the collection or the author or even the name of the story or any of the characters in it. Things I do remember: a man is being investigated because his wife (a genius roboticis...

 
9:21 AM
@doppelgreener You might want to check this out for a request on RPG too:
1
A: Science Fiction & Fantasy's updated site theme is ready for testing!

TheLethalCarrotfeature-request Note that this was an issue with the old theme too but seeing as this is a theme change we might as well address it now. Using the same search from this answer I see the following results on default view. The colour difference between an accepted answer result and just an an...

 
 
1 hour later…
10:44 AM
0
Q: Is it a good idea to watch the DC animated shows after finishing the CW Arrowverse shows?

Seren JinIs it a good idea to watch the DC animated shows after finishing the CW Arrowverse shows? I'm just really hooked on these shows and would like to watch the animated series as well for more info about the characters. A friend of mine recommended the TV shows and he says they're accurate. Will th...

0
Q: Short story about aliens warning humanity not to leave Earth

MickmickI was reading an answer on Quora and it referenced a story. The answer went like this: Humans were contacted by aliens out in the Oort Cloud and told never to come farther. It wasn’t, they told the humans, safe out there. Humans managed to learn from some other aliens that it wasn’t safe...

 
 
1 hour later…
12:06 PM
0
Q: What happened to Pius Thicknese after his misfortunate term as the Minister?

TimSparrowFrom Book 7 and Pottermore, we know that Pius Thicknese has been sacked and replaced by Kingsley Shacklebolt, who made a successful Minister of Magic. But what happened to Pius after the war? From Pottermore (Ministers of Magic): Omitted from most official records, as he was under the Imper...

 
SQB
12:24 PM
Hm... now that I do have access to site statistics, it'll be interesting to compare before and after on the new theme.
 
@TheLethalCarrot Thank you :)
 
1:24 PM
Greetings, Earthlings.
 
0
Q: Game of Thrones : Is DaenerysTargaryen able to live through all types of fire

srb1991We have seen that Daenerys Targaryen can live through fire, but can she live through wild fire? and if she comes in contact of a dragon's fire, can she live thorough it unhurt?

 
SQB
@Donald.McLean You come in peace?
@Marvin double dupe.
 
1:58 PM
Hi there
 
2:21 PM
@SQB Always.
 
SQB
@Donald.McLean do you want me to take you to our leader?
 
@SQB Oh heck no.
 
SQB
 
0
Q: Why don't Starfleet captains force other Starfleet ships to lower their shields every time they fight?

ServitorBased on the episode The Wounded a starfleet captain has access to prefix numbers that allow a captain to remotely lower the shields of another starfleet vessel, even when the legitimate captain is still in command of the other vessel. Based on this popular answer an admiral might be needed to g...

0
Q: Is the 2016 TV series a direct adaptation from the books?

JNatIn the Wikipedia page for the 2010-12 TV series there is a section in which it's mentioned the TV series is not a direct adaptation from the books: The screenplay of the pilot by Howard Overman is not a direct adaptation of the novel, but uses certain characters and situations from the novel ...

 
 
1 hour later…
3:34 PM
@Donald.McLean greetings, Hubble guy!
@CaptainMarvel oi!
@SQB the aliens can't stand up to that.
Aaaaw that comment on Bad girls at pleasure island got deleted... :(
 
4:25 PM
-1
Q: DOCTOR WHO: Davros in The Stolen Earth and The Magician Apprendice

Alx TioltisanWe all know that Doctor did not save (first) Davros in that balt of rising hands from the dirt. But, when Davros met Doctor's younger versions (let's talk about The Stolen Earth Tennant era) he did not mention anything about his young version and being left there by the Doctor. I know that th...

 
4:35 PM
@SQB do statistics show retention?
 
@Alex I meant 25k statistics
From what I see this query doesn't have a time stamp does it?
nvm
 
read that too fast
 
@Jenayah I know. But the one who created the query is both a moderator and has more than 25,000 reputation. It stands to reason, then, that those tools were not able to give this information.
 
It's an article about the fact that astronomers have determined that there is a planet around the star where the planet Vulcan is located in the Star Trek universe.
 
4:49 PM
@Alex duh so those tools are really useless in this case
 
@Jenayah Which part is the "duh"?
 
@Alex whaddya mean?
 
I'm wondering which aspect of my comment you were referring to.
Namely, "a statement perceived as obvious".
 
@Alex the "duh" was targeted at the 25k stats
not really the comment... My pedantry's on break for the day :p
 
@Jenayah Okay, just making sure you weren't trying to insult me.
By the way, the following data on questions per user might be explained by user retention levels (though of course I can't prove that, and it certainly doesn't address retention levels over time):
2
Q: Significance (or lack thereof) of the number of questions per user

AlexI recently calculated the number of questions per user for all Stack Exchange sites with more than 10,000 questions. The data was taken from the main Stack Exchange page listing all the sites, and I rounded to the nearest 1/100. (Obviously all data is only accurate as of now and can change in the...

 
5:02 PM
@Alex nope
I like to think I'm straightforward... If I ever have a problem with someone I'll tell them
@Alex oh that's an interesting stat, even if it's tweaked by various parameters (timespan between all the Q's etc), but still
 
@Jenayah Yeah, I didn't do it very scientifically. I just took the total number of questions for each site and divided it by the total number of users for each site.
 
1
Q: Wouldn't this object be too heavy to carry?

Chris StubbsIn the Ant-Man film it is established that Pym particles only change the distance between atoms and not the number of atoms. This means that when you shrink or enlarge something it maintains the same weight. With this in mind then how is able to carry a Wouldn't this object be too heavy to...

 
@Alex out of curiosty, how long did that take you to do manually?
 
5:18 PM
@Jenayah A while. I didn't exactly time it, and I did it over the course of a couple of days, but it basically entailed clicking on each site icon to find the numbers, then inputting the numbers into a calculator, then recording the results, then sorting (2 seconds on Excel) then copying it into the Meta post. Repeat 77 times.
If there's an easier way, I'd love to feel stupid...
But at least the results didn't refute my theory.
 
I guess it can be done with SEDE but then again I never used it
 
Though it probably took less time than this one (which I never even finished):
2
Q: Average number of comments per post: Mi Yodeya vs the rest of the Stack Exchange Network

Alex[Thanks to msh210 for telling me how to make these calculations.1] I checked the average comments per post of the top 8 Stack Exchange Sites, to compare to Mi Yodeya: Stack Overflow 89,126,736 comments 51,068,664 posts 1.75 comments per post Mathematics 5,843,848 comments 2,834,045 posts ...

 
comments are probably even more of a pain to track, aye
 
@Jenayah Yeah, I basically went to each site and tried to find the most recent comment, and then took the number from the URL to be the total number of comments for that site.
 
@Alex ahah good luck with StackOverflow...
 
5:29 PM
@Jenayah They had 89,126,736 comments.
At the time I wrote that post.
 
SO and freaky numbers...
 
6:12 PM
@Alex that's not always accurate
there are large gaps in the numbers due to behind-the-scenes-stuff
 
@Mithrandir Yeah, someone in the comments there pointed this out:
@Alex I believe there can be gaps in the ID space; that is, not all IDs are actually used. I know that's true for posts; I don't know about comments but suspect it's the same. It has something to do with allocations of blocks of IDs in the database (waves hands vaguely here; that's all I remember). Also, sorry I didn't follow your link; I now see you weren't using SEDE for this after all. — Monica Cellio ♦ Jun 27 at 21:56
I don't understand it, though.
 
SO had 68,628,370 undeleted comments as of Sunday
 
@Mithrandir But there could easily be another 20 million deleted comments.
 
(In the past 8 months, Interpersonal Skills has had ~35,000 comments posted, counting deleted comments. At least according to the comment bot.)
 
6:52 PM
0
Q: Was Boba Fett originally suppose to be in Episode 4?

BewcIn the theatrical release of Episode 4, Boba Fett does not appear. In the behind the scenes though, I recall Jabba was originally filmed (as a human, not a slug), and then the scene was cut. The scene was restored in Special Edition, with the human replaced with the slug. Was Fett a part of that ...

 
7:25 PM
1
Q: How many men did Duke Leto have on Arrakis?

DarthPaghiusThe Baron Harkonnen mounted a huge planetary-wide invasion to take down the Atreides. Based on accounts of different characters, there had been more than 2000 ships and tens of battalions of Sardaukar involved. He later admits that it'll take at least 60 years of full-capacity spice production to...

 
7:53 PM
Hey actually got an idea for the theme which might meet bot SE requisite and folks' preferences
Dark theme
Same color as the black text
 
SQB
@Alex that's how databases work. When a new item is added, it gets an ID. This is not done by checking at that moment what the highest current ID is and taking the next one.
 
Text on left nav is then hidden as well as left nav
Everybody's happy!
I'm only half joking.
 
SQB
Instead, blocks of IDs are reserved for use and handed out when needed. A block may not be fully used, so some of the IDs are never used for an item and just skipped when a new block is reserved.
IDs are usually guaranteed to be increasing (newer items have higher numbers) but not necessarily consecutive (there may be gaps).
 
It's like using postage stamps (in a world where every postage stamp ever made is individually numbered). You send a lot of letters and you're not going to visit the post office for every individual stamp then come back home and stamp the letter then head back out again for the next one. You are too busy for that and so is the post office. You'll buy a bunch of stamps, take them home, and use that bunch. Others will buy other bunches at the same time.
If your house burns down (the server crashes) you're going to leave that book of stamps in it and they'll get burned up, those stamps never ever get used.
 
SQB
I know this because I'm a programmer and had to find away to guarantee consecutive IDs for since system for tax purposes — it is doable, but creates a bottleneck at the point where the IDs get handed out.
 
8:03 PM
@doppelgreener that is a very good analogy. I'll keep it in mind for next time I have to describe such a thing :)
 
aw yes :D
 
SQB
Hm... I'd add that if you put a stamp on an addressed envelope, and you end up not sending the letter after all, you can't reuse the stamp.
 
true
 
SQB
Also, having a house burn down sounds a bit dramatic.
 
oh noes :(
Jean Piat is dead :(
He was the French voice of Scar and Gandalf, as well as some others.
But well back then I used to watch movies dubbed in French ('specially animated movies of one's childhood, as one does)
So yeah... :/
dam
 
8:14 PM
0
Q: Short story where peaceful inhabitants of a planet defeat militant invaders by making them smarter

Steve HoffmannI read this in an anthology back in the late '60s and have been looking for it again ever since. Militant people arrive on a peaceful planet where the natives live in harmony with nature and go about naked. They've seamlessly integrated technology with their environment. The militants decide t...

 
I honestly fought "Soyez prêtes" sounded way better in French than the original "Be Prepared". Genuinely, I mean; more charism, more passion, and reflected the twisted evilness of Scar way better.
So in memoriam of Jean Piat, here's the French "Be prepared".
 
SQB
8:26 PM
I'd use pre-stamped envelopes as an example. You pre-stamp a batch to use that day (they're stamped with the date). If you write an address on one, then end up not sending the letter after all, you throw away the envelope.
Also, you may have pre-stamped too many envelopes. Since they're stamped with the date in our example, you throw them away since you can't reuse them. If you run out during the day, you pre-stamp a bunch of new ones, since the stamping machine is in the basement and you don't want to walk there and back for every single one.
 
Okay, thanks @SQB, @doppelgreener, @Mithrandir, and @Jenayah for the information and great examples! I didn't realize that a computer would also need to "cheat" for efficiency. Good to know.
 
@Alex well I didn't do much but happy to help
And yeah, computers cheat all the time.
That's basically the thing that allows them to be faster
 
@Jenayah You were part of the conversation, so you get some credit.
Now my results are all skewed.
Unless the computer happens to skip exactly proportionately across all sites.
Which is probably unlikely.
 
Damn I can't remember its name exactly, but there's actually a very good cheat like this which is used a lot: basically when you have two possible "branches", the computer begins to execute one, based on likelihood to happen, even before the actual "was that condition fulfilled?" is done
 
8:43 PM
@Jenayah Kind of like:
 
SQB
28838
A: Why is it faster to process a sorted array than an unsorted array?

MysticialYou are a victim of branch prediction fail. What is Branch Prediction? Consider a railroad junction: Image by Mecanismo, via Wikimedia Commons. Used under the CC-By-SA 3.0 license. Now for the sake of argument, suppose this is back in the 1800s - before long distance or radio communication...

 
@SQB That question would be a good way to achieve:
14 hours ago, by Alex
Has anyone ever had a tag score that was higher than their total reputation?
Assuming the votes were not spread out evenly across six years.
 
SQB
@Jenayah also see Spectre (the bug).
 
@SQB yeah
Actually we were told about speculative execution as a side comment in one of last year's classes
including Spectre and Meltdown
 
9:20 PM
Unrelated but GRRM is a funny tweet guy
 
 
1 hour later…
10:23 PM
0
Q: Book about a painter swordsman who gets involved with rebels

Paul BaughmanThe story is about a painter (with an Italian sounding name- Benotolli?) and swordsman who early in the book talks about his uncles beating his worst traits out of him: fair play and chivalry. He stabs a guy in the back and saves a girl who he then romances and ends up losing to the rebellion she...

 
@Jenayah Today is his birthday, isn't it?
 
 
1 hour later…
11:44 PM
0
Q: Is movie Deadpool's fourth wall breaking a "mutant power"?

GGMGIn the first Deadpool movie, Deadpool gains his powers as part of attempting to force a mutation. And he does get a mutation: the incredible healing factor. He also gains the ability to break the fourth wall and recognize he's in a comic book movie some time shortly after the mutation. However, ...

 

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