Bay 12 Games Forum

I heard some discussion on the radio about the number 0 and everyone seemed to agree that dividing by 0 was impossible.  I think they're all wrong about that.

We already created imaginary numbers to define the square roots of negative numbers; 2i being the square root of -4. 

And infinities are not all equal.  Some infinities are bigger than others.  For example, as x goes to infinity, comparing: A) y = 2x^2  and B) y = 6x^22,  y is much larger in case B than in case A.  Vastly larger for any given value of x.  (don't be distracted by x=0). 

Infinity is a direction, not an actual number.  Because there are no ends to the series of numbers.  But looking at any number, there is always a value that is 5 more than that.  C) y = x;   D) y = x + 5. 

So why not compare various types of infinity?  inf_2 being equal to 2 ÷ 0 yet much smaller at every point than inf_102 being equal to 102 ÷ 0.  And inf+5 being the infinity that is greater than whatever number you can think of, by exactly 5. 

Essentially, just maintaining the same mathematical notation in any equation, but adding the notation to compare infinities when for example, dividing by 0.  Then dividing by 0 becomes possible, though admittedly, not very consequential.

Maybe, by definition, dividing by 0 is the final number of infinity.  The final number, of the endless series of numbers.  Whatever it is, you could add 5 to it.  There are some equations the resolve toward limits as x goes to infinity.  E) y = 7 - 2/x  practically equals 7 as x goes to infinity, despite never actually reaching 7.  But goes to -inf as x goes to 0.  D) y = 8 - 5/x  however descends toward -inf at a much quicker rate and y does in E.  That's just comparing the slope of the curve.  Calculus does this.  What use does talking about the infinity concept bring us that cannot already be explained by calculus? 

Infinity is the process.  The endless progression.  No end to the counting.  A loop with no end point.  There is no final number of infinity.

Is it worth thinking about dividing by 0?  It seems like there could be some utility to doing so, but not at the moment.  Maybe some extra-dimensional alien technology might be the use-case for it.

Anyway, the radio is interesting sometimes.

So I made a bunch of not well notated changes to lots of raw files in DF, and am wondering if there is a simple way to undo those changes.  I was hoping that I could just uninstall the game and reinstall it from Steam, but that did not reset the changes.

I'm thinking to just go in from the file folder view and just start deleting directories, and then reinstall it again.  This makes my spidey sense tingle however that I could cause some irreparable harm this way.  Am I worried over nothing?  Or is there a better way to go about getting fresh raws?

So after an embarrassingly long time having played Civ6, I just learned that there is a reports button at the top right of the screen that shows what amenities have been traded to and from your civilization.  I am wasting so much less gold now!

Is there any way to prevent duplicate guild petitions?  I've tried denying them, but they come back just a few days later with new petitions.  I've tried accepting them, but unless they're given sufficiently valuable zones, they just re-petition again for another of the same guild but by a different name (albeit months later and not days later).  Some sort of union busting needs to happen in my fort.

Currently, sorting by profession does not use custom profession names, just their DF-assigned profession names.  I would find it helpful to be able to sort by custom profession names.  In the meanwhile, sorting by name does take into account custom names, so the list can still be given a custom order that way.

While we're on the subject of that screen, having it remember the previously viewed configuration would be nice, rather than defaulting to profession A-Z, but that's hardly an issue at all.

It may just be a coincidence, but since I've ordered the first of the adamantine processed into wafers, all of the past 4 strange moods have demanded adamantine wafers or strands.  My hypothesis is that if they have no material preferences, they seek out the most valuable material available?  It's an unfortunate unexpected tax on the wafers.  I had hoped to save some for dwarves whose highest moodable skills are weaponsmithing, rather than metal crafting, but I'm not sure that's possible now. 

Am I jumping to conclusions here, or have I broken the seal, and now all future moods will drain the remaining stockpile of wafers?

I've recently noticed that if there are no seeds available to plant, dwarves with farming enabled will not do any other jobs if there is an empty patch of farm.  Setting the farm to fallow or disabling their farming labor results in them going off to work the various other jobs.  Otherwise, they just stand around and spam "...cancels Plant Seeds: Needs plump helmet spawn"

My current way of handling it is that whenever I notice the cancellation spam, I toggle those farms off and make sure dwarven wine / pigtail cloth / quarry bush leaves / etc. are being produced and not just sitting in a stockpile.  I suppose now is a fine time to figure out work orders for the food industry.  But regardless of processing bottlenecks, is there a better way than fallowing the fields to get the farmers to do something productive while they wait for seeds?