Stuff of the day

[sobrique]

Well, finally, I can post to LJ once more.

DoS attack it seems...

I've been trolling pagga a bit today, with a discussion of whether there's any point in using the term 'percent' in Maelstrom.
I'm not sure if the other guy is a fuckwit, is genuinely missing my point, or whether I'm missing his.

I'm trying to point out that the Kyat, because it's made up of 81 riels, is a base 9 currency, and therefore percentages are pointless, and everyone should therefore be working in 9ths (or 81sts).

But anyway, thread is here.
On the same one as I'm trying to show off an online Maelstrom calculator.

Figured it'd come in handy figuring out margins on shipping etc.

So what's 1 Kyat 15 * 84 tonnes? What about 1 kyat 56 * 84 * 2? And how does that alter things if I lose some to other things?

We may have a line on some free food from Nordon in Malathia. Don't know how much yet, but I got hints that it may be as much as a ship full. But with the proviso that it goes to the Malathian Colonies...

But anyway, does anyone have any trouble if I start counting maelstrom currency in base 9?
Eg. 1, 2, 3 ... 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 ... 18, 20, 21 ... ... 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 100.

Much easier to calculate with if you think about it. Cos we can apply standard denary arithmetic - 1:0 + 2:0 = 3:0.

Ok, so multiplication is still somewhat evil, but still works in approximately the same way.
3 * 1:6 is ( 6 + 6 + 6 = 2:0 + ( 1:0 + 1:0 + 1:0 ) = 3:0 so 5:0
which is the nonary conversion of 45.

And the added bonus is it'll confuse the hell out of everyone, meaning we get to laff.

or as an alternative, we could use ternary instead. (eg. base 3)
http://www.cut-the-knot.org/blue/SysTable.shtml

Comments

[malal.livejournal.com]

Percentages could well still exist, and be applied to the currency (his point), but there really not very usefull for that, and there are better ways (your point). And it looks like you're both missing this (at least, that was the impression I got when I last looked ~2pm (very)ish....)

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

So the point I'm missing is that it's possible to divide by an arbitrary number?

[malal.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. I'm sure percentages exist anyway, I have a hard time beliving that they were developed due to using a base 10 currency in the real world, so I have no reason to belive they don't exist in the maelstrom world. If he can't see that they're just not relevant here, well that's his problem...

[xarrion.livejournal.com]

I'm still baffled by his logic at saying because 9 riel + 1 riel adds to 10 riel that it's a decimal system...

[cerberic.livejournal.com]

He's confusing number representation (base 10) with the actual currency multipliers (8, 9, 120, 128, etc). Or, to use Ed's phrase, he's a fuckwit. Whilst I can appreciate people do get things mixed up when arguments are vague, the explanation has been clear enough and repeated several times by different people so his refusal to acknowledge the fact that the currencies are not base 10 is either stubbornness (at best) or idiocy (at worst). Either way, Ed's description applies.

On a side point, I don't think you should have given the calculator to people, Ed. It puts them on an equal footing with us. Let them use their brains to work it out, then we can screw them over. :)

[xarrion.livejournal.com]

Are we certain he published the correct one? ;)

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Well, if you look at the source code, it's just a simple matter of tweaking the ratios a little....

If it becomes 'used' then ... well I'm sure we can publish our conversion rates program... A little skew here and there never hurt anyone...

[tya.livejournal.com]

If I was a suspicious and/or cynical man, I might start thinking you've got far too much time on your hands... :-)

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Hey! Perl looks like work! :)

[jambon-gris.livejournal.com]

why percent? you use percent in currency thats in base 100 as Sobrique pointed out. Actualy which idiot decided base 9
9 is only divisible by 9 1 and 3. LSD used 12 D to the S (and 12s to the L i think becuse its devisible by 1,2,3,4,6,12)

[cerberic.livejournal.com]

12 d to the s, and 20 s to the L, resulting in 240 d to the L

Bizarre but true: the £ symobl (pound symbol, for people with wierd keyboard mappings :) came about because those in charge wanted to emphasise that Britain was moving with the times and so the old pound wasn't being used any more - hence the old symbol 'L' with a line through it as though being crossed out.

[cerberic.livejournal.com]

No, I don't know what a 'symobl' is either, but this damn thing won't let me edit my comment...