Hey rustbuckets! (I guess that's the postfurry equivalent of "greymuzzles," right?)
I have a really bad idea.
Should I tell these kids the story of Esche and Karna? It suuuure does feel timely...
@zebratron2084 Holy shit, I haven't heard those names in a bajillion years.
@mawr Oh, we HAVE to trade stories sometime! We harbored them for a long time on Puzzlebox, probably a bit longer than we should, and I have *very* well-mixed feelings about the experience.
@zebratron2084 I never knew them directly, but I heard a lot about their antics from Libby and company
@mawr @zebratron2084 ... I miss Wintermint.
@literorrery @mawr Geez, I don't even remember Wintermint!
@zebratron2084 @mawr Esche's Very Earnest Happiness Engineer from Charmwarp.
@literorrery @mawr Oh, wow. That one's worth going through my archives for...
@zebratron2084 Brass doesn't rust; it patinas.
(( This is totally my version of "it's not old; it's distinguished." ))
@literorrery "I'm not *old*, I'm three doz* and one!"
(*I'm afraid among other things I've lost track of your current dozenal orthography standards. My worst suspicions proved true-- I think Rezy ate my copy of your schematics. n.n )
@zebratron2084 In Sofi, it would be "ena, dia, gia, kahra, peta, sita, sahba, yahsha, tisa, deka, reva, kahm." A gross is "bahgahn." A great gross is "pahree." A great great gross -- a dozenal myriad -- is "zhehmahr." I haven't started to solve the high-order math yet. I'll probably use Knuth's -yllions as a base when I do. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-yllion). I haven't started on rationals yet.
Oh, and zero is shehfir.
@literorrery "Knuth... don't talk to me about Knuth." #personalbackgroundissues ;>
(I'm sure I've mentioned this story many times. I'm still not sure if my resentment of him for never RSVPing to Beta Nu chapter is tongue-in-cheek or not. :> )
@zebratron2084 You've mentioned; I can't help that he built something useful that gets me to big numbers quickly.
Not as big as, say, inaccessibles, but big.
@literorrery (Oh, I'm mostly using this as an opportunity to reminisce at people, don't take me to heart at all on this one! n.n;;
I don't have the faintest real objection to hearing his name-- he's indisputably a master. Even at Theta Chi, our "resentment" towards him was 95% a joke, because it's like asking Augustus Caesar to come to his 25-year high school reunion. :D
Besides, kinda hard to be mad at the guy who invented the Potrzebie system. :D )
Do I need to get you Ron Graham's autograph for your birthday?
(I'd get you his cell number, but it takes a REALLY long time to dial it...)
@zebratron2084 ... I was going to make a joke about Ackermann functions, and then I wound up on the wikipedia page for Transfinite Induction, and then I remembered I was working on Roque's mix and never finished it.
(Even if I do have a Burn After Reading-scale inkling that I learned NOT A BLOODY THING from our acquaintance with them. :) )