Randomize

For those of you paying attention in other forums, I just learned that you have to turn on the VBScript Random Number Generator before you use it. If you don't, you get the same result for Rnd() everytime. I kind of think that is stupid, since you want a random number... but whatever.

So now at the top off all of my scripts and ASPs will be the lone, undocumented statement "Randomize".

When someone less familiar with VBScript asks why that is there, I can smile and tell them the system works on chaos.

Hehe....can you explain chaos?

No, but there is a book... Peter Gleick? I don't remember the author's name.

Ever read Jurassic Park?

I tried to, really. But there is just something about Creighton's writing that annoys the <explicative> out of me.

He keeps telling you what you are supposed to think. He doesn't tell you what the character thinks, he doesn't tell you what is going on and let you draw your own conclusions, wrong or otherwise.

So after a few pages of him tell me there was an owl on a tropical island, I tossed the book out the door.

The owner of the book was walking by anyway. I told him I couldn't stand and he could take it back.

I can explain certain facets of the theory, the ones I've encountered. It is like the theory of relativity. I've only messed with pieces (applications?), I've never read about the whole thing.

Too bad about the book...it really is his best. It explains chaos pretty well if you can slough through it and it was much better than the movie!

I'm not a big Crieghton fan myself....hated the sequel (both book and movie) but I really got into the first book.(I did also like the Andromeda Strain)

katie, if you get a chance, get his timeline book, it really is quite good. quite an easy one to read, but very enjoyable. :)

Is that the one where he goes back to medieval times to save a lost scientist? That wasn't bad....:)

yep enjoyed it imensly. I had just finished a run of about 4 tom clancy books, so it was quite refreshing to have an easy to read book :)

I would actually like to read Andromeda Strain. I saw part of the movie, and that book is something of a milestone (albiet a small one) in sci-fi.

If we are suggesting books... I'm sure I could find many.

Asimov's Foundation Trilogy is excellent! If you like sci-fi you'll love these!

Asimov's the best sci-fi writer i know :)

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Originally posted by barrk
Asimov's Foundation Trilogy is excellent! If you like sci-fi you'll love these!

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Agreed!!! Any other suggestions!:D

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Originally posted by CiberTHuG
For those of you paying attention in other forums, I just learned that you have to turn on the VBScript Random Number Generator before you use it. If you don't, you get the same result for Rnd() everytime. I kind of think that is stupid, since you want a random number... but whatever.

So now at the top off all of my scripts and ASPs will be the lone, undocumented statement "Randomize".

When someone less familiar with VBScript asks why that is there, I can smile and tell them the system works on chaos.

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"reproducible " random numbers are actually very useful for things like pharmaceutical trials where you may be required to reproduce *all* the test parameters exactly including the random number sequences (the best way for that is to just to have the random numbers in files)!

My daughter has a fabulous book called "Spot and the Ball". He goes into quite a lot of depth about how we perceive spot, and how we interpret spot running with the ball. Oh! and it's got pretty pictures.

SD

Ha! And they say I'm illiterate, I'll show hemt....

Actually I agree with the forum so far. Foundation Series was Great, Crichton sucks. Have tried to read 4 of his books so far, got half way through all of them. The only author beating him in my un-completed books score is Grisham.

Give me Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett any day;)

SD

SD...why aren't you out having birthday fun?

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Originally posted by barrk
Too bad about the book...it really is his best. It explains chaos pretty well if you can slough through it and it was much better than the movie!

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I thought that Creighton rather missed the point about feedback in engineering (i.e. you don't just set your steam engine to rev at 500 rpm or whatever by setting up the pressure, rate of fuel burn etc - you adjust it dynamically depending on output - that's why chaos is not a big problem in closed engineering systems or indeed in Zoos like JP).

Any Stephen Donaldson Fans? Thomas Covenant trilogy(s) are great! IMHO

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Originally posted by SurfDemon
My daughter has a fabulous book called "Spot and the Ball". He goes into quite a lot of depth about how we perceive spot, and how we interpret spot running with the ball. Oh! and it's got pretty pictures.

SD

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Sound really interesting - I looked in Amazon but couldn't see it (my daughter's birthday is coming up and I though she might enjoy "Spot and the Ball")

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Originally posted by Kzin


"reproducible " random numbers are actually very useful for things like pharmaceutical trials where you may be required to reproduce *all* the test parameters exactly including the random number sequences (the best way for that is to just to have the random numbers in files)!

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And since you can put it in files, then you shouldn't have to turn Rnd on.

Love Prachett, Love Asimov's robot stuff. It is simply beautiful. Though he can't write a woman. Love Orson Scott Card, and I was going to recommend Pastwatch. It is a very good book, and one that I think the pulp crowd that doesn't like sci-fi could appreciate. I also like Le Guin. The Left Hand of Darkness is such a good book, and she has some great short stories.

But for some reason, my favorite is Arthur C. Clarke... even though I could do without the ending to most of his works. Just cut the last three pages/paragraphs.

I also like Peter David, or tieing everything together, Timothy Zahn, for making a trilogy as good as the orginal and better than the prequel, Phillip K Dick, and many many others.

The Polar Express is a great kids book! Many fond memories with my kids and I!

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Originally posted by barrk
Any Stephen Donaldson Fans? Thomas Covenant trilogy(s) are great! IMHO

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Yeah - I took the Thomas Covenant trilogy as 'light reading' when trekking in Nepal a few years back - they comprised about half my luggage :) - but it was great fun answering questions of the "what is you book about" type to remote villagers . . .

"Ah well . . . its about this Leper you see . . . and he has a dream . . .":rolleyes:

Le Guin's EarthSea Trilogy was very enjoyable! I would recommend it.

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Originally posted by Kzin

Yeah - I took the Thomas Covenant trilogy as 'light reading' when trekking in Nepal a few years back - they comprised about half my luggage :) - but it was great fun answering questions of the "what is you book about" type to remote villagers . . .

"Ah well . . . its about this Leper you see . . . and he has a dream . . .":rolleyes:

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LOL

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Originally posted by barrk
The Polar Express is a great kids book! Many fond memories with my kids and I!

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What is it about? What age group?

It's a out a Christmas train....age anywhere from very young to young at heart!

Kzin: The spelling might be slightly different, but your name reminds me of an anthology called the Earth-Kzin wars.

The Kzin evolved from cats and have lightening fast reflexes and more strength than humans. They have a macho warlike culture similar to the Ancient Spartans. They happen to be unimaginative and not real intelligent.

All the stories involve encounters between Men and Kzin, with the Kzin never understanding why they cannot win against an inferior (from their point of view) enemy.

In one story a Kzin ship attacks a human space ship equipped to mine for ore on uninhabited planets, knowing that a mining craft would not have weapons. It does not have weapons, but it does have a mining tool that can crack a planet into little pieces to get at the minerals. The Kzin are quite surprised when the unarmed ship makes mince meat out of them.

I agree that Asimov was great. He also wrote a lot of good non fiction. Not all of it was science oriented. He was a history and biochemistry expert, as well as a damn good scientist. I have been disappointed by the so called sequels/prequels to the Foundation series, which have been written by other authors. Not that the stories were all that bad. They were just unlike anything Asimov would have written.

Crichton (?spelling) always bugged me because he often portrays scientists as jerks or nerds.

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Originally posted by barrk
SD...why aren't you out having birthday fun?

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Had to nip back to the office for half an hour to shut p.c. down before going back on binge.

SD

I haven't read the Thomas Covenant books. I think I'll go and get them. I'm just about finished working my way through all of David Eddings books. Nice easy going reading on the bus at 6am when my brain isn't too awake.

This TC stuff might be a bit heavy for that time of day!

SD

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Originally posted by barrk
Ever read Jurassic Park?

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Jurassic Park (both movie and book) makes me itch to post another questionaire

If you were equiping and maintaining a Dinosaur Park would you

(a) drive around in fast, dinosaur-proof armored vehicles (Saracen/Warrior etc) and issue trained staff with good automatic weapons such as M16s/EWSs ?

(b) drive around in special electric SUVs that can be turned off centrally and only have one gun on the island?

(c) drive around the animal pens on a recumbant bicycle wearing a swimsuit having covered your body with tasty
marinade?


If you chose (b) or (c) would you conclude that western science was flawed if you got bitten?

I think I'd have to vote for c. It would get the inevitable over with quicker plus you'd get some fresh air and exercise riding the bike:rolleyes:

And plus the dinos might lick before biting.

*ooh* :p

Definetly B, and I'd put on a terrible fake Scottish accent and start calling everyone laddie and lassie in the hopes of coming to the attention of the casting scout for "Far and Away II" or "Robin Hood Prince of Thieves II" both highly noted for their thespians grasp of accents.

Oh yeah, and I'd send everyone home for the weekend except some fat computer bloke who's in a hissy fit with me.

Yip, thats the way the ole surf-demon would do it!

SD

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Originally posted by barrk
I think I'd have to vote for c. It would get the inevitable over with quicker plus you'd get some fresh air and exercise riding the bike:rolleyes:

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I guess the guys would enjoy the swimsuit bit too ;)

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Originally posted by Kzin


I guess the guys would enjoy the swimsuit bit too ;)

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the vehicle for (c) was going to be a Sinclair C5 so you wouldn't even have got the exercise


but I couldn't bear having to explain what a Sinclair C5 was to people outside Britain (and why we thought they were a great world leading idea)
http://www.etedeschi.ndirect.co.uk/s...r/picts/c5.jpg

You don't have those DCX or X-33 pictures to offset this do you Katie?

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Originally posted by Guv
Kzin: The spelling might be slightly different, but your name reminds me of an anthology called the Earth-Kzin wars.

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Well spotted - I joined up quickly wanting to get some bit of info or other and thought of this name from that context (I wanted something that was short, that I would remember and would be recognisable to other sci-fi fans). I - erm - borrowed the picture of a Kzin in my Avatar from some other Kzin. The two other high profile Niven aliens are more fun but their names wouldn't be suitable.

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Originally posted by Guv
Crichton (?spelling) always bugged me because he often portrays scientists as jerks or nerds.

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I don't know - the girl palaeontologist in Jurassic Park seemed up to scratch.

Yeah, she was pretty good in that film with Nic Cage.

Well I'm really happy. I've just found a Terry Pratchett book that I haven't read. I must have bough it some time ago, stuck it on the bookshelf and forgot about it.:D

I wonder whatever happened to all the C-5's that were sold (didn't the sell/give away a couple of hundred of them?). They must be lurking in somebodys closet somewhere?

SD