I have a slide rule. Got it at an antique shop. It's great fun to use, though I'm glad it's no longer the standard pocket tool for calculations. UW's math department (or is it Carleton's?) has a giant slide rule on the wall of the lounge.

The scales "fit together" because they're based on logarithms -- base 10, to be specific. For example, the number 2 is found about 30% of the way along because log₁₀ 2 is 0.301. When you multiply numbers on a slide rule, you're basically adding their logs. (Whatever base <i>b</i> you pick, log_bxy = log_b x + log_b y. By hand, adding is much easier than multiplying, so log tables were a revolutionary shortcut when they were first published.) Because the base of the logs on the slide rule is the same base our number system uses, the 2 can represent 20, 200, etc. as needed; you just have to remember where to move the decimal point afterwards.

I actually figured all this out myself. The tipoff was that my slide rule (like most) has an L scale for logarithms, and that one IS evenly spaced.

'Fraid so. Avril (or her label) has a bad habit of choosing her worst songs as singles. "Sk8er Boi" and "Complicated" are the low points of Let It Go, and "Girlfriend" has an even more annoying concept than "Sk8er Boi". (Not that it's hard to find a bad track on The Best Damn Thing. Oh, Avril... why did you dumb yourself down so much?)

This reminds of a story told by Robert Fulghum. There was once an abacus-versus-pocket calculator competition, and the abacus won. The calculator guy was in such a hurry to show off that he input fuzzy facts.

In fact, more than once in school we've had lectures teaching us to NEVER take the calculator at face value and ALWAYS keep in mind the range of where the answer should be. What order of magnititude? What units? That sort of thing.

...Panditur interea domus omnipotentis Olympi, conciliumque vocat divom pater atque hominum rex sideream in sedem, terras unde arduus omnes, castraque Dardanidum adspectat, populosque Latinos.

And yes, I frequently use a fountain pen. It's a tool of distinction from a more civilised age. Using a biro by contrast is like leaving a black-tie dinner party for McDonalds.

Whoa, biros. CV, have you ever heard the story from Hitchhiker's Guide of the guy who decided to find out where all the missing ballpoints went, only to find a planet inhabited by pens?

Okay, a sort of game. What's THE most esoteric thing hanging on (any of) your bedroom wall(s)? Just looking around, I can see (and this is the SHORT list):

A wall plaque that says "If a man speaks in the woods and there's no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?" :)
A set of Yu-gi-oh dogtags.
A Schoolhouse Rock refrigerator magnet.
A toy duck umbrella.
A suction cup Chicago Cubs teddy bear (named Cubby).
Two medals I won in Science Club back in high school.

I have used neither - about the most archaic thing I've ever used in that regard is an electric typewriter. I don't write with pen anyway, unless I have to - propelling pencils are my thing. I once had a really really cool one that had a cunning mechanism whereby if you gave it a shake the lead would come out, rather than having to press in the end. Never been able to find that model again, annoyingly.

Most esoteric thing... hmm. I've got a pair of clippy picture frames that have a collection of various (mostly SF) images I've printed off in them - two concept art images from the game Homeworld 2, one from Red Alert 2, a piece of artwork from Nausciaa of the Valley of the Wind, a fanart image of the TARDIS in the vortex, a cutaway artwork of the refit Enterprise, a fan rendering of the USS Excelsior flying through an asteroid field, a piece of Chris Foss artwork (used as the cover for the Asimov collection The Complete Robot), a cityscape of Mega-City One, a piece of cover artwork that I scanned years ago from a comic in which Judge Dredd teams up with Batman (you heard me), and... two photos of Ash, a deceased cat.

Otherwise, my walls are nearly bare. I've a Simpsons cloth poster thingy that was a present years ago pinned to the ceiling, and filled in tennis draws from Grand Slams blutacked to the walls, and that's it.

At one point my ceiling had an Escher print on it. It was the one where the fish gradually turn into birds via a modified tesselation. It was cool.

So somewhere on the Internet I saw a modification of the Even/Odd rule of Star Trek movies, which says in effect: evens are good, odds are bad, multiples of five are HORRIBLE.

Opinions?

Eh, they'd have to make another eight or thirteen to be sure. I'm not sure Paramount's spirit of inquiry stretches quite that far, though. ;)

Have we talked about the TOS HD-DVD set yet? Besides that offer of a phaser remote if you preordered of course. That thing still looks cool.

"Have we talked?" Does that really count as a PNQ? Does this? Or this?

;)

Fine, Mr. Smarty-Pants. What are people's opinions on the HD-DVD set? Worth it? Not worth it? Best thing ever? Will single-handedly kill the franchise?

In (late) answer to the esoteric things question, I can't decide: Does a foot-tall statue of Horus as a falcon count?

Yes, it does.

Do you ever ask him why he has a long face?

What, is it Lame Punchline Week or something?

Only every other Thursday.

"It must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays..."

I don't have a counter-joke, so I'll just have to respond with "By gad sir, you're a chap worth knowing!"

My sister has claimed that I'd like the show Big Bang Theory. Any opinions from you guys? I'm elsewhere the nights that it's shown, so it'd involve taping for later viewing (I don't have TiVo or anything similar) and I want to know whether it's worth the bother.

Here's a question for all you Metroid fans out there. It's not particularly persistent or niggling, but it probably doesn't warrant its own thread, so I'll put it here.
Which do you think I should buy: Metroid Fusion or Metroid Zero Mission. I'm planning on buying one or the other of them (eventually I may want both). I haven't entirely ruled out the other handheld Metroid games either (Metroid II, Prime Hunters, or Prime Pinball), but I'm leaning toward either Fusion or Zero Mission, and I don't really have a preference for one over the other. So, any suggestions?

Sorry, I've never seen it. From the little I've read, though, the concept sounds interesting.