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Neat game. It reminds me of Skitchin', since both games were made by EA and they clearly are cousins of one another. Two quick questions though:
1) Is it possible to get first place in the first race? It seems a shame that the best a TAS can do is second place.
2) In Skitchin', you get a substantial speed boost (~10 units, with 125 being max speed) when you perform a trick off of a ramp. Is that the case here as well? I notice you didn't use ramps much, but in the one instance I caught, your speedometer didn't increase. Still, you'll want to verify that you don't get a speed boost by looking at the RAM.
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tormented wrote:
Eh... it's impressive, but I didn't really find it that entertaining. I'm not really sure. I kind of think that these kind of total control movies that just sort of muck about seem more fit to silly YT videos than TAS. Using total control as a playaround just doesn't feel genuine. I'm not particularly wowed by being able to do all these CRAZY THINGS once you've already broken into the game, because nothing is going to give off that shocking "oh man, how was he able to do that" that a non-tc TAS would. It's obviously not trivial, but it doesn't really blow me away. Not voting.
I'd first like to say that I was entertained by this, I did enjoy it, and if I were the type of person to vote, I would certainly vote yes for this.
However, to play the devil's advocate, I think tormented raises a good point. Most importantly, the gameplay is effectively identical to the published credits warp run. This run offers little new gameplay that we weren't exposed to in that run.
To reconcile this, I suggest (but by no means demand) that this run obsolete the current credits warp run.
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Warp wrote:
Bobo the King wrote:
You're a smart guy, Warp, and we're not your math instructors. Go study limits and/or non-standard analysis. They aren't that hard.
So you are saying that with n/k, when k approaches zero, the result approaches infinity, and therefore the result is infinity without k being zero.
So "approaches zero" means "is not zero", and "approaches infinity" means "is infinity". Because reasons.
Yes, makes a lot of sense now. How didn't I see that before?
The reciprocal of an infinitesimal number is infinite in non-standard analysis.
Also, it's a dirty little secret that people are often imprecise with their language when it is generally understood what everyone is talking about. This happens in math, physics, computer science, and elsewhere. We don't really need to draw a distinction between "approaches infinity" and "is infinite" because we've all gone through those rigorous calculus classes and we know what is meant, even if it is not technically precise. Well, we didn't need to draw that distinction until you chimed in, at least.
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Warp wrote:
Bobo the King wrote:
Okay, guys! Pack it up! A forum member on a video game website with no formal education in higher mathematics just found a flaw in over 300 years of mathematics, completely dismantling calculus and all of the subjects that follow from it. Please collect your Fields Medal, Warp.
Is sarcasm a new form of mathematical proof that I haven't heard of?
A volume of non-zero size has finite mass but infinite density. Perhaps it's you who should be collecting those medals. You are inventing new physics.
You're a smart guy, Warp, and we're not your math instructors. Go study limits and/or non-standard analysis. They aren't that hard.
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Randil wrote:
I have another math problem I thought up today. I don't know how complicated it is, maybe you can shed some light on it:
Imagine that there is a 4 digit code that you have to break. Once you hit the correct code, the lock opens up, so there is no doubt when you found the correct code. You have an unlimited number of tries, but you still want to minimize the average number of tries you have to make. Of course one possible brute force method is to start on 0000 and increase by 1 each time, giving an average number of tries of 5000.
However, this setup has an additional feature: below each digit is a light that can be either green or red. If you have entered digit i (i=1,2,3,4) correctly, light i turns green with probability p_right (and red with probability 1-p_right). If the digit is incorrect, the light can still turn green, but does so with probability p_wrong (and red with probability 1-p_wrong). One situation could be where p_right =0.95 and p_wrong=0.05, i.e. each light is "probably" green if you entered the digit correctly, and "probably" red if it is not correct. In this case you can most likely get away with less than 5000 guesses.
Your task is to construct an algorithm that uses this light information in order to minimize the average number of tries you have to make. For some reason you know the values of p_right and p_wrong (but of course you don't know the correct code).
I'm interested in what you can come up with, and how the average number of attempts your algorithm has to make depends on the values of p_right and p_wrong.
(I don't know any smart solution to this myself, I just propose the problem to you in the hopes that you find it interesting!)
That's a nice puzzle and I'm looking into it with simple binary cases and the minimax rule. It's a cute exercise in type I and type II errors.
However, I should point out that the code cannot be "cracked" in the conventional sense because you could enter the correct code and the lights might all be red, especially if p_right is very small. I think the best you could do is repeatedly guess codes until a preponderance of evidence points to a particular code (perhaps to the point that the probability that a code is incorrect is less than one in a million). Also, I'll quickly note that there is necessarily a degeneracy when p_right = p_wrong = 0.5, since that corresponds to the lights being red or green completely at random.
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Warp wrote:
Bobo the King wrote:
This is why I suggested you study limits. You are not speaking from mathematical experience, only your intuition. When we take the limit as n approaches 0 from the right, a positive number divided by n approaches infinity (it grows arbitrarily large).
You are still arguing that the result of the limit becomes infinity without the divisor becoming 0.
At the limit the divisor is 0, and the result is infinity. You can't have the divisor as non-zero and the result infinity.
Okay, guys! Pack it up! A forum member on a video game website with no formal education in higher mathematics just found a flaw in over 300 years of mathematics, completely dismantling calculus and all of the subjects that follow from it. Please collect your Fields Medal, Warp.
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Warp wrote:
Firstly, there is no such a thing as "the smallest real number larger than 0." Such a real number doesn't exist. Likewise there is no such a thing as "a real number that's larger than all other real numbers".
Secondly, you are arguing for n/k to be infinity without n being infinity nor k being 0. That is a contradiction.
This is why I suggested you study limits. You are not speaking from mathematical experience, only your intuition. When we take the limit as n approaches 0 from the right, a positive number divided by n approaches infinity (it grows arbitrarily large).
The language comes even closer to the mathematical definitions and theorems when we use non-standard analysis. In that formulation, there is an infinitesimal (hyper)real number greater than 0 but less than all other real numbers and its reciprocal is infinite. All of calculus can then be re-derived from this formulation.
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Warp wrote:
thatguy wrote:
An point of infinitesimal volume and infinite density would have a non-zero finite mass.
"Infinitesimal" means explicitly "non-zero". If the object has non-zero volume and a finite mass, its density cannot be infinite. If it had infinite density, then it would have infinite mass.
No, thatguy is right. Study limits. Or study non-standard analysis.
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I've stayed away from responding to this question because I'm woefully underqualified to answer any questions about it. Fortunately, my research advisor-- while not especially renowned in this field-- is qualified to at least examine some open questions and we happened to talk about it around a year ago.
Tub, from many physicists' perspectives, you are exactly right in your skepticism. In the words of my advisor, "Infinities always cause problems in physics," and the more you think about it, the more you realize it's true. We often use integration over the entire domain but if you take a step back, you realize that it has to break down eventually and the best you can hope for is that there is no "heavy tail" and the correction terms are very small. One example of this is in quantum field theory when we examine the perturbation of particle scattering experiments. Our perturbation technically includes instances where an electron flies out to Jupiter, orbits it three times, and then returns to the laboratory before detection and we assume that the inclusion of this and other "absurd" terms won't affect our prediction (and so far, theory and prediction match up quite nicely).
By my understanding, researchers in general relativity took the infinities (or singularities) as gospel when they were developing theories of black holes. I personally had an astronomy professor as an undergrad exasperatedly insist to me that black holes collapse to a single point infinitely fast, even though I was trying to simply argue, effectively, "No one has seen the interior of a black hole, so the mass being concentrated at a single point is indistinguishable from the mass being concentrated just within (or even just outside) the theoretical event horizon." Today, more general relativists and cosmologists are moving away from language that asserts or implies that the infinities/singularities are physical in nature.
Take all that with a grain of salt. You'll want to talk to someone who has the mathematical background to say what's going on with both general relativity and quantum mechanics.
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feos wrote:
Bobo the King wrote:
IThe admin then forwarded information about the PM to the staff member in question. This is where I think Warp's privacy was violated. When we send PMs to one another-- be it to regular users, staff, or admins-- we have an expectation that those conversations will be kept private.
Let's see.
Imagine there's some post by, say Spikestuff, that was attacking, say, Scrimpy. Scrimpy dislikes that attack, sends Nach a PM telling this was a bad act by Spike. Nach contacts Spike in order to punish him.
- Hey Spike, I need to punish you for something.
- For what?
- I can't tell you, or someone's privacy will be violated.
-
Aside from the fact that I already mentioned that there is a gray area here, your hypothetical scenario is completely out of line with what we've been told by Warp.
Adelikat apologized, I'm satisfied, and I think this thread has effectively run its course.
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I'm going to jump in alongside ALAKTORN and RGamma and say that I'm siding with Warp-- with major qualifications.
While Warp has framed this in terms of responsibilities (of the site's staff and admin) I see it as more about the users' expectations toward each other.
Warp had a problem with one of the site's staff. I don't think it matters that they were part of the staff. I've been a part of many forums with abysmal and hostile staff.
Warp then privately contacted a site admin to complain about the staff member's behavior. The admin dismissed the complaint. Again, I don't think that matters because we have no expectation that the admin should take any given complaint seriously.
The admin then forwarded information about the PM to the staff member in question. This is where I think Warp's privacy was violated. When we send PMs to one another-- be it to regular users, staff, or admins-- we have an expectation that those conversations will be kept private. This is one of those bedrock principles that I think any healthy forum is implicitly founded upon. To be fair, I think there is some grey area here. For example, I think it is within the PM recipient's discretion to mention that they received a PM from a specific user without discussing the content. I also think it's fair to post the content of a PM if it directly contradicts a certain narrative (e.g., the staff and/or admin in this case could post their PMs if it directly refutes Warp's assertion that he was civil throughout the conversations). Above all else, however, PMs should remain the business of their two parties unless it becomes absolutely necessary to disclose their contents. To that extent, I agree with Warp and am troubled by what he says if it is true.
By the way, Warp, when someone asks you to clarify something, never tell people that you were already clear enough the first time. I have dealt with people who do that and it is incredibly aggravating. Even if you simply quote a relevant portion of your original post, it goes a long way toward structuring the discussion and specifies whether you are bothered that the site's staff insulted you, that the admin ignored you, or that the admin shared your PM. Even this thread's title, "Site staff attitudes", implies that you're most troubled by the way the staff treated you. If I am right and you are most bothered by the PM sharing, a better title would be something like "Site admin sharing private messages". By being specific in your complaint, especially when asked for clarification, you keep the discussion on-topic and avoid 40 posts that essentially boil down to, "What is Warp really complaining about here?"
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Randil wrote:
Thanks a lot, Bobo and FractalFusion.
Bobo, a small question on your solution, would an equivalent (and in my eyes simpler) description of the routine be to start with your string |||*** and then look for the rightmost instance of the string |* and replace it with *|? The routine would stop when the string |* is not found. It seems to me that this will generate the same solution as you presented.
Piling on to what rhebus said, your method will work if you also move all stars to the right of |* to the rightmost position. The point is that |* --> *| can't be the only step in the algorithm. I like your simplification, though. Like I said, I've never been all that adept at writing or explaining algorithms efficiently.
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Randil wrote:
What is the formula (or a piece of pseudocode would work just as fine) for creating all the possible ways of sorting k objects into n bins (with no regard to the order they are placed)? For example for k=2 and n=3 I want to generate the matrix
0 0 2
0 1 1
0 2 0
1 0 1
1 1 0
2 0 0
I found it quite easy to find the solutions with a brute force method for small n and k, but when n and k get large it gets trickier.
Note that I'm interested in the indivudal solutions, and not just the number of solutions. I feel like there is an easy solution to this that I can't see/remember clearly...
Ah, this type of problem is often encountered in statistical mechanics. The traditional treatment is to use the "stars and bars" method in which the stars represent the objects and the bars represent the "walls" separating the bins. So let's start with your first example, which you already seem to have a good grasp of. In this representation, the six possibilities become
||**
|*|*
|**|
*||*
*|*|
**||
and these correspond exactly to the answer in your post.
Now, I've never been all that good at writing algorithms, so I'll sketch out the gist of the algorithm as I see it:
1. Try to move the rightmost star one space to the left by exchanging its place with a bar to its immediate left.
2. If you cannot do this because there is a star to its left, try to move that star to its left by exchanging its place with a bar. Keep doing this until you find a star with a bar to its left.
3. Once you find a star that can be moved left, move all stars on its right fully to the rightmost position.
4. Continue in this manner until all stars are on the left and all bars are on the right.
For example, let's consider what this process looks like when sorting 3 objects among 4 bins:
|||***
||*|**
||**|*
||***|
|*||**
|*|*|*
|*|**|
|**||*
|**|*|
|***||
*|||**
*||*|*
*||**|
*|*||*
*|*|*|
*|**||
**|||*
**||*|
**|*||
***|||
That's 20 different configurations and we expect 6 choose 3 = 20 configurations, so they should all be present and accounted for.
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It's a good run and a very impressive amount of work went into it. I'm concerned, however, that it doesn't differentiate itself from the any% category on most levels. Really, I only found Mystic Cave 1 to be entertaining specifically because of the ring evasion factor.
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Briefly, regarding therapy, if you are in any way dissatisfied with your therapist, don't be afraid to ask for a different one. It happens more often than you'd think and psychologists (decent ones, at least...) will be happy to help you find someone who works best for you. Don't feel "locked in" to a particular therapist just because they happened to be the first one available.
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There's a lot to reply to here and I've decided to rearrange some of your responses so that this post "flows" better.
MUGG wrote:
All this time I thought of her as a friend, but now I don't even know what friendship even means.
That's pretty funny considering that your profile picture is Scootaloo half the time. I mean, it's the second line of the theme song!MUGG wrote:
She just toyed with me. She touched me and smiled, but only to entertain herself and have a good time but nothing more.
I know people are beating this point to death, but she was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! It's good that you recognize that she was acting selfishly and what she did was needlessly cruel.
MUGG wrote:
And I don't think of her as a choice...
But she is a choice. I don't know what your views on relationships are, but if you think feel that everyone out there has just "one true soulmate", it would be a good idea to abandon that notion. Even when you find someone to spend your life with, you'll inevitably find little "flaws" that make you wonder about how your life would be different if you had someone else. Maybe you don't enjoy the same TV shows or maybe they have a nervous habit that drives you crazy. Or maybe you know they're perfect for you but you just imagine the same person with slightly different traits-- a little taller, more active, a slightly different sense of humor. That doesn't mean they aren't right for you, it just means that you recognize that you have dozens, hundreds, thousands of choices of people you can partner with. If you have the right attitude, it will make your relationship all the more special that you chose that person.
MUGG wrote:
Right now I just need time to heal my disappointments/depression.
MUGG wrote:
But I will remember them for a while.
It's very healthy of you to acknowledge that you need time. A lot of people here (myself included) are urging you to go out and enjoy life for yourself, but I think we all would acknowledge that your mood isn't going to change overnight. However, time alone isn't going to make you feel better and you really need both pieces-- time and effort-- to get yourself out of the hole. Since you already know you need time, you're halfway there!
MUGG wrote:
But I don't have a life. I don't have anywhere to be. I have always been on the PC doing TASing/speedruns/scripting/nonsense just to pass the time and as a hobby. But I don't have the motivation for that anymore. So basicly I'm just sitting here at home doing nothing except wait for next week.
MUGG wrote:
I can't.
You can! Ask yourself where your shackles are coming from. They're all internal. No one will tell you it's easy, but you absolutely have control over your immediate actions. As soon as you read this text, I want you to pick yourself up off your chair, get on the ground, and do some push-ups. I bet you can't do 20 of them!
Did you do it? Great! You could! And you did! You didn't even have to leave your room and you can do it again or you can move on to something else that will make you happy.
Did you not do it? That's okay! It was just a goofy exercise and we'll keep trying to find something that clicks for you.
Another way to approach this is to ask yourself what you last did that made you happy. It could have been going to the movies or riding a bike or sculpting something out of clay. Did it make you happy 20 years ago when you flew a kite? Awesome! Go buy a kite and do it again!
MUGG wrote:
Yes, that has also already been in consideration. It is difficult to have the self discipline to keep at it, though.
It's great that you're already thinking about going to the gym. We all have times when we feel lazy and unaccomplished but when you're battling depression is the most important time to force yourself out of your comfort zone and get something done. Try to acknowledge how much you don't want to do it, then use that as motivation to do it regardless. Your reluctance to go to the gym or do anything else isn't because you specifically don't like the gym, it's just a symptom of your depression. Take control of things and force yourself to do it because you know you hate your depression far more than you hate the gym.
MUGG wrote:
I think what you wrote sounds really motivating but I just can't. If anything, I might clean up my room because I got nothing better to do this weekend.
That is a great start! I know it doesn't seem like much, but just because it's a basic chore doesn't mean that it's not a valid way of staying active and improving yourself. Put on somemusicthatyoulike and devote just one hour to cleaning up your room-- maybe even just a corner of it. You'll be amazed at how much you can accomplish!
MUGG wrote:
That is what I don't want to do. I don't want to be alone. I want to live to help and cheer up others, and to be loved back.
MUGG wrote:
I think I'm doing those things because I want to see if others care, if others will come and ask if they can help me. But nobody did that.
Hogwash! We're doing that! We all want you to be happy and thrive and succeed and we're all 100% behind you! You're not alone, you can help and cheer us up, and we love you right back!
I realize that the internet feels very anonymous. Maybe what I'm typing seems like it's just a wall of text and you have a hard time understanding that there's someone halfway around the world at a keyboard. I assure you, however, that you are more real to me than a lot of people I've met face to face.
MUGG wrote:
I can see everyone is successful, but I on other hand am not. I barely made it through school, barely made it through internship and now I'm in therapy. I see time pass by, I'm getting older and older. I hate my own birthdays. I'm still not where I want to be.
This is one of the most valuable things you wrote, since it contextualizes a lot of your situation. I'm right there with you, man. I underperformed in college, I'm inexperienced, and I'm terribly underemployed despite being moderately talented. I know what you're going through. The sad fact is that a lot of people our age are struggling with the same exact things and society is stifling our voices. Our parents' generation says we're unmotivated and our peers all seem to be happy and successful, so we worry that if we tell people how unhappy we are and that we feel like we're drowning, we'll just be told to quit complaining and just push ourselves further. If you pull back the curtain a little bit, however, you'll see that your "successful" friends are working long hours, underpaid, grappling with personal problems, and many of them will fizzle out at some point. Frankly, social and economic situations have made this one of the most psychologically damaging times to be alive, in my opinion. It's one thing to struggle but another thing entirely to be told you're not allowed to complain about it.
Since I'm going through the same thing, I don't have an easy answer for you except to reiterate that you should seek to better yourself. A lot of your post speaks of external validation. A woman rejected you. You want others to like you. You barely made it through school. Your parents want you to move out. These are all instances of other people judging you and you in turn are looking to them to make you happy. They can't and they won't, but you can, you will, and if you did those 20 push-ups, you did! Ultimately, no one's praise or accolades will ever make you happy. True happiness comes from within and you can achieve it without being a straight A student, earning a lot of money, having a lot of friends, or having someone to love. I'm currently working on a major project in which I produce educational YouTube videos. I'm cautiously optimistic, but ultimately, I don't expect they'll bring me fame or fortune. It's just something that I need to get out of my system. Find that itch you need to scratch, that one project that you've been meaning to do that lights a fire within you. Pour your heart into it and success will follow.
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Whoa there, you've got a title that surely will scare a lot of people on this site and then you've offered scarcely enough details for any of us to offer much help.
You're a talented and interesting person! I want you to live!
As for your rejection, we've all been there, but dang, you got it rough. What your "friend" did was terrible and you should look at the silver lining that you wouldn't want to hook up with someone so cruel. It actually sounds like there was some sort of motivation for their actions (maybe they were put up to it or were intoxicated at the time) but you'll have to let go of that speculation and just read it at face value.
If there is just one piece of advice I would like you to take to heart it's that you should live for yourself. I think that everyone has a deep-seated fear that they'll never find that special someone and they'll go through life alone. While some people may have strong cultural reasons for feeling that way (e.g., they're pressured to produce grandchildren), I think if most of us step back and ask ourselves why we're so caught up in finding a mate, we'd realize how stupid the whole endeavor is.
Being in a less-than-perfect relationship sucks. It exposes yourself emotionally, puts a strain on your finances, takes a tremendous amount of time and effort, and you'll likely come to the realization that the person you're with just isn't right for you, so you just have to wait for that bomb to drop, whether you do it or they do. And what the heck do you get out of it? Companionship? Adoration? Sex? If the relationship doesn't last, you're sure to look back on all of those with disgust.
Being single is actually pretty cool! You get a lot of free time to do whatever you want, you never have to compromise, and you can live life entirely on your own terms. Forget impressing people, just do what makes you happy. Go to the gym because you want to be stronger. Study an unusual subject because you want to be more learned. Travel the world because you want to experience other cultures. Take up a craft or hobby because you want to create things for yourself. These are all things that are much harder to do while you're attempting to juggle a relationship.
Then, just as my message is starting to sink in and you realize that life is pretty good even without a partner, someone will walk into your life. They'll see what a special and unique person you are and want to spend every waking minute of their life with you and you'll want to do the same with them. You'll be surprised that you got the relationship you always wanted without ever asking for it and all of those "ones that got away" will seem laughably ill-suited to you by comparison. You'll have found your perfect companion.
And all of those things I said three paragraphs ago will still apply. You'll have less time, less money, and you'll be emotionally invested in this other person. Perhaps the only relief is that if they're truly right for you, you won't have to worry about them breaking up with you-- but it's been known to happen! You'll see it all as one big tradeoff and your inner peace will come from the fact that if your relationship ends, you'll know that you suddenly again have all the time and resources you need to seek the self-improvement that got you to where you are and you're ready to do it all over again. Or not, because maybe you're content to live life for yourself.
I know the above advice is kind of generic and you're still reeling from the rejection, but try to absorb it. Instead of lying down on some railroad tracks, jump right on the self-improvement train and do something today to make yourself a better person entirely for your own sake. Work out, read a book, learn to play an instrument, study science, write something, learn a new language, take up a craft, etc. Force yourself out of your rut even if you have to drag your feet and your mood will lift in no time and you'll be amazed at how much better life feels.
Pre-submission edit: While previewing my comment, I noticed you've written a new post. In it, you say:
Mugg wrote:
Right now I wish it wasn't the weekend. I'm probably going to sit here and do nothing until it's monday and I can get another chance at talking to that girl, for better or worse.
That's exactly what you shouldn't do! Be THANKFUL that it's the weekend! You've got all this free time to explore your own life and your own interests! Jump on that horse, make yourself a better person, and discover for yourself that there is so much more to life than love!
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Tompa wrote:
The reason for not getting 99 lives is the same as for the 100% run: It's an unneccesary waste of time that will showcase something already done in multiple runs since 2003. It's nothing original, it's nothing unique and it's nothing we want to sacrifice time for.
Yes, we could easily get some more points, coins and lives without wasting any time, though nowhere close to 99. Is it really worth to care that much for? No, it is not.
If you want to see a run with 99 lives, we already have several of those where the category and power up in use makes it doable, impressive and interesting: http://tasvideos.org/1590M.html
But please, drop these discussions for every single SMB3 run, it's tiring.
Thanks.
In addition to seconding jlun2's comments on this, I'd like to say thanks for leaving out the 99 lives. I'm quickly becoming a "TAS purist" when it comes to the entertainment factor-- just show me the run without jumping around like a loon, especially when most of the tricks are really well established in other TASes.
Not to pick on the Mario World TAS currently on the workbench, but SMW TASes seem to be among the worst offenders. I'm kind of tired of the inverted swimming glitch, item juggling, and flying acrobatics. They were all really cool when they were first discovered/implemented, but now they're overused and just distracting.
Can we have a subcategory or forum post for entertaining crap that's been "retired" or is otherwise unsuitable for a TAS?
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Bobmario511 wrote:
Saw this abstract linear algebra question on a test today and wanted to share it (posting it off of memory so somethings may be off):
Let A,B,M be nxn matricies which have real entries where n is a natural number, where AM=MB [corrected] and A and B share the same characteristic polynomial.
Prove det(A- MX) = det(B - XM) if X is an nxn matrix with real entries.
It's not specified whether this is true for any X or if there merely exists an X. I'll assume you mean there exists an X because that's the proof I'm coming up with.
My proof relies on M being invertible, which wasn't specified. I suppose you might be able to re-work it in such a way that it doesn't require inverting M. I kind of doubt it, though, since M-1 shows up explicitly in my solution.
A and B are similar because B = M-1AM. So that's neat.
Also, we know det(A-λI) = det(B-λI). That's more useful. Let's start there.
det(A-λI) = det(B-λI)
Replace I on the left with MM-1. Replace I on the right with M-1M:
det(A-λMM-1) = det(B-λM-1M)
Now just commute λ on the left hand side because it is a scalar.
det(A-MλM-1) = det(B-λM-1M)
Finally, identify X as λM-1. Now we have
det(A-MX) = det(B-XM)
QED.
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boct1584 wrote:
Most of the time when I'm watching TV or Netflix, I'm watching true-crime shows like Forensic Files and The First 48, or I'm watching an on-the-job reality TV show such as Deadliest Catch or Ice Road Truckers.
Apparently boct1584 is my mother.
I don't watch much TV and have a special disdain for serial drama (exceptions: The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and now Better Call Saul). My girlfriend recently started watching Jessica Jones on Netflix and I got halfway through the first episode before pretty definitively deciding it wasn't for me. It wasn't especially bad as dramas go-- I'd even say it was above average-- but it really felt like it was pulling the viewer along. As I see it, drama is easy, comedy is hard. Introducing convoluted plot twists and cookie-cutter characters we're supposed to care about takes almost no effort. Getting me to laugh at something in a way I never have before is more impressive to me.
So for comedies, I've stuck to The Simpsons my entire life. I'm also currently enjoying Gravity Falls and have watched a little Rick and Morty. I just don't watch much TV these days, though. The vast majority of it is really insipid.
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Warp wrote:
Invariel wrote:
No, Warp. You don't get to define this conversation.
I'm just saying, I have seen first-hand what it has done to other communities. It has teared them apart, resulting in really, really ugly in-fighting (all the way up to real-life doxing and harassment, from both sides of the argument.) It has happened both to online and real-life communities.
Please don't let it happen to this community. I am trying to stop it when I see the warning signs. And it's because I care about this community and I don't want to see it ripped apart by ideologues.
Let's just discuss this subject in a normal reasonable way, shall we? Please.
While I appreciate your intentions, you probably should have realized, "Don't use feminist rhetoric because it causes the topic to be derailed and things to get uncivil," would cause the topic to be derailed and things to get uncivil. (By the way, is there any word or phrase for this concept, a statement that is virtually guaranteed to have the opposite of its intended effect? The best I can come up with is just "ironic", but I have a feeling Douglas Hofstadter has written about something like it in Godel, Escher, Bach or elsewhere. I think it's also kind of tied to the idea of a maximally unstable system. It reminds me of the old blue eyes puzzle in which an innocent statement about the presence of blue-eyed people causes much of the population to commit suicide. Another similar situation is the state of conversation after Godwin's law has been satisfied.)
Aaaaaaanyway, the only "feminist rhetoric" in this thread is "marginalised group", which seems like a pretty tepid phrase. We've been talking civilly about the idea of changing one's gender expression-- using different pronouns, wearing different clothes, talking differently, maybe even having surgery-- and the idea that "marginalised goup" would blow up this whole conversation seems pretty ridiculous to me.
Yet here we are. Shall we put things back on topic?
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Samsara wrote:
To repeat what I've said for a third time now, I don't believe this should be news, I agree that people should just accept it without any hesitation, but there's definitely a place to discuss transgender people and issues in hopes of promoting and furthering understanding between trans* people and non-trans* people. We've already pretty much stopped discussing Narcissa, we've all accepted her transition as if she was always who she is now, and that's great. But I feel this thread still needs to exist, maybe in a different form as a general transgender discussion thread, as long as it remains and no one comes in claiming it's unnecessary.
We're not advanced enough yet as a society to have everyone just instantly accept everyone else no matter how they feel, who they are, or who they want to be. Coming out as trans* is still really fucking difficult because of this. It's absolutely nerve-wracking to consider how differently people are going to treat you after coming out, knowing that you'll definitely lose friends who disagree with who you really are, thinking that you might be disowned by your family, and the only driving forces that will help are your own desires and a strong support net, no matter how insignificant it might be. It could be a strong group of real life friends or a thread on a forum for playing video games very fast, and it'd still make a huge difference in accepting yourself and gathering the strength and courage needed to come out.
Honestly, who the fuck cares if it's not suitable for the site? Barely anything outside of gaming is suitable for this site. You know what, though? This is suitable for the community that keeps the site running. I love the fact that this thread exists, because every post is still supportive in a way. No one has said anything negative about transgender people at all. Even the people speaking out against the thread's existence are just saying that things like this shouldn't be news as everyone will accept everyone for who they are no matter what. That's great! We need messages like that!
So this should either turn into a general discussion/support thread for trans* people, or we should start a new discussion/support thread for it. Every little thing counts, every little bit of support and every individual comment and even things no one realizes they're doing is helpful and meaningful. So let's cut the arguing and continue with the support.
Strongly seconded. That's really all you could ask for. TASVideos has hit some real low points in the past, so it's encouraging to find a cause we can all support. And in true TASVideos fashion, we still manage to find a way to bicker about it.
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I too will signal my agreement with moozooh that this shouldn't be and predominantly isn't about Narcissa's sex or gender but about her courage. Having said that, while I can't speak directly for Narcissa, I'd also like to append that she likely isn't transitioning for the recognition or to be called courageous-- it's something deep inside of her. I think an entirely appropriate response to her transitioning is to say, "Oh. Neat," and move on. To that extent only, I think Warp makes a perfectly valid point.
One of the most stubborn psychological obstacles that people face when they face any dramatic change in their lives-- coming out as gay or transgendered, losing a loved one, becoming disabled, etc.-- is the ever-present feeling that people are walking on eggshells around you. You try to pick up your life and move forward and people just aren't telling the same kinds of jokes they did before or they're overly concerned with how you're doing or they may even turn to you and ask, "Was it okay that I said that?" Sometimes you can't even put your finger on it, but the mood just seems "off". To make matters worse, you may have an occasional outburst of emotion and suddenly everyone is hyper-aware of your situation, even though you might feel better after a day, an hour, or even a few minutes' time.
Again, not being Narcissa, I can't really say what she wants. If I were in her position, however, I wouldn't seek to be lavished with praise and attention, I'd just want people to recognize me as the person I am.
