I believe Howl's Moving Castle was originally written by Diana Wynne Jones, and it's an anime movie now too.

So I'm reviewing my old college textbooks, and I keep getting annoyed by expressions like this:

(variable)=(equation) (less than or equal to) (constant)

That is, if if the equation yields a value greater than the constant, you're supposed to use the constant instead of the value from the equation.

PNQ: Why can't the books simply use

(variable)=min (equation, constant)

Isn't this an easier way and less confusing?

So if you hadn't heard yet, Disney bought LucasFilm and is planning a sequel Star Wars trilogy...

PNQ: Am I the only one that's more interested in the fact that Industrial Light and Magic was part of the deal?

I mean, Star Wars 7-9 will happen and I probably won't watch them. Maybe Indiana Jones 5 will happen, maybe it won't. But consider what will happen when Pixar and Industrial Light and Magic can exchange ideas and team up where required. Magic, that's what'll happen.

I've just finished reading an old book that has hundreds of different solitaire games in it...

PNQ: What's the most obscure solitaire game you've ever played more than one game of (one game experimentation doesn't count)?

I guess Grandfather's Clock is the most obscure variant I've ever played.

I'm contemplating Kirk's split into good and evil versions in "The Enemy Within"...

PNQ: Doesn't this episode render all arguments of "the transporter carries your original molecules to the destination, so you aren't killed and cloned" rather moot?

There are a lot of solitaire games out there. I couldn't say which are more obscure than others. Aces Up, Poker Solitaire, and Grandfather's Patience come to mind as ones I've played.

Prelude: I have not seen The Amazing Spider-Man, nor do I intend to.

PNQ: Why didn't Uncle Ben use the "Great Responsibility" line?

Seriously. This isn't hard to mess up. It's only the single defining moral of Spider-Man's universe after all.

In an interview the director said that they couldn't find a way to fit it in. Well, that seems to call for a little more effort, doesn't it?

I'm watching a Let's Play of Ocarina of Time: Master Quest, and the guy is confused as to whether "Deku" is pronounced "Deh-coo" or "Dee-coo."

PNQ: How do you pronounce it?

Personally, I've always gone with "Deh-coo". It just sounds better.

I would probably pronounce it as Deh-coo as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=0TJbFoCTVOs

CR of Channel Awesome reviewing a tabletop game called Pirates at Ocean's Edge. It sounds very complicated to me, and requires a cheat sheet to keep track of what's going on.

But then again, I've never played it. And I used to play Yu-gi-oh, another insanely complicated game that has entire pages of errata for most cards.

PNQ: Are all games (MMORPGs, tournament fighters, etc.) like this? I mean, do they all look more complicated than they really are?

I imagine it depends on how well-designed they are. Some games, the complications all matter at some point. Other games, you just focus on one or two winning strategies.

Then there's power creep over time, like in Kingdom of Loathing, where there may be thousands of items but only a few dozen currently have any relevance for the serious power gamers. A new item gets introduced and there are a dozen forum posts debating, among other things, whether it saves 0.7 of a turn compared with a similar item from a year ago, and under what circumstances. :D

It's really a question of a learning curve. You just learn a little more the more you play, until you know the relevant details inside and out. Then it doesn't seem so complicated.

Hah, that just sounds badly constructed. Maybe you mean exceptions or something rather than errata?

Most Yu-gi-oh errata consists of "If you play this card against another card, which wins or what would happen?"

PNQ: How many five-year missions do you think the original crew went on?

Most indications tend to lead to a guess of three: the original, the one between the first and second movies, and the one between the fifth and sixth movies. But I suppose it's a matter of opinion.

PNQ: What's the deal with Mr. Bill?

I've seen both Spoony and Paw mention him in videos. I vaguely knew of his existence. I don't watch Saturday Night Live, so I had to look up his origin.

Really, is it simply "claymation is funny" combined with "funny voice"? Is it really as simple as that? Why is this guy so memetic?

Seems to me that the simplest things are often the most memetic.

Really, though, I have no idea about Mr. Bill. I've seen him in a commercial once and referred to once and have no knowledge of him beyond that.

Somehow I shouldn't be surprised that he started in SNL. SNL seems to have started a lot of little cultural things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJpBYByNiAg

So Stuart Ashens (if you're not following his YouTube channel, etc. etc. plug plug) got a floppy disk at a convention as a promo item. It contains one jpeg. He had to dig out a USB external floppy drive to use it.

PNQ: When's the last time you used a floppy disk?

I want more interesting stories than "I used a reboot disk to recover my corrupted hard drive", so reboot disks are banned.

I just retrieved the Win '95 and XP machines from my parents' place, so yeah. I'm gonna be retrieving some stuff off of floppies in the near future, and possibly saving stuff as well. When your hard drive has ~100 MB free space, you appreciate being able to save an ~800KB game file elsewhere.

Yeah, there are places where floppies are far superior. That's why I'm one of the (relatively) few people to use a Zip Drive back in the day. Exactly like floppies, only they can hold 100 MB? What's not to love?

Okay, the Click of Death. But thankfully I've never encountered that.

So once again I stumble across a discussion of whether paper or plastic bags are better for the environment. And in almost every store I go to they're more than willing to sell you cloth bags to carry your stuff in so you don't have to use either. But...

PNQ1: Have you ever been worried and afraid that if you carry a Store X bag into the same Store X that you purchased before, you'll be accused of shoplifting, if only the bag?
PNQ2: Have you ever worried that by showing a Store X bag at their competitor, Store Y, that you'll be treated differently?
PNQ3: Why can't the city or some nonprofit organization sell these bags that explicitly have the name of said city/nonprofit organization on them that you can use everywhere? Obviously you didn't steal that bag, right?

1: Not really.
2: I got ribbed a bit once by the cashier, that's all that's happened.
3: I'm sure there are such bags. I'm sure I've seen them sold in stores, which kind of negates your hoped-for benefit here. We have a few bags from city and from church, but they were given away free at events.

PNQ1: Now that two Hobbit movies are out, can anybody tell me if all of the dwarves are given unique personalities and character arcs?
PNQ2: If the answer is no, what do you think would've been a manageable number? 4? 6? 8?

I think it's safe to say I have no idea what Peter Jackson's doing, but in the book a lot of the dwarves are pretty interchangeable, quite possibly existing for the sake of forming a large number and having fun names. And allowing for long introduction scenes.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nvi.../1100-6418530/

PNQ1: Do you know anybody who has paid anywhere near $3000 for a graphics card?
PNQ2: Do you know anybody who has paid anywhere near $3000 for an entire PC?

Someone solving a 11X11X11 Rubiks Cube.

PNQ: What's the largest Rubik's Cube you've ever solved? I'm still at 3X3X3.

PNQ: What holodeck programs would you have liked to see more of?

Bashir's James Bond parody? Vic Fontaine's lounge? Dixon Hill?

PNQ: If you had to set a cutoff for anime where:

Before Year X: The vast majority of dubs are going to be sanitized and edited within an inch of its life, and generally speaking if you want the intended experience you have to go sub.
After Year X: The vast majority of dubs are loyal to the source material, censorship is minimal, and you can get the intended experience in English.

What year would you choose, or has that time not yet come?

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at, honestly. Is that calendar year or viewer age year or . . . ? Are you suggesting anime is getting more or less raunchy as time goes by?

I tend to prefer subs by default to get the original voice actors, anyway.

Calendar year. This has nothing to do with target age or content level, this has to do with the competence and integrity of the dubbers

On the whole, I prefer dubs IF they can be done properly. I hate HATE having to read the bottom of the screen because it continually pulls me out of the experience. Authentic, loyal dubs can be done, because I've seen them. I just wish more companies would do it.

So what's the year where most prior dubs aren't faithful (and you must watch sub) and most subsequent dubs are faithful (so you can watch them without unnecessary censorship or cultural whitewashing)?

Ah, well, I wouldn't know. I think it may also be a function of which company is involved in the dubbing.

PNQ: Putting aside the technological and political implications, if you were to serve in Starfleet which "era" of uniform would you wear?

A. Enterprise.
B. TOS-series.
C. TOS-movies. (The Monster Maroons, of course, not those hideous STTMP uniforms)
D. TNG-series. (black shoulders and pants, colored torso)
E. TNG-movies. (colored collar, gray shoulders, black torso and pants)
F. DS9/VOY. (black pants and torso, colored shoulders)

TOS-series, of course. I like color. :)

In watching an old game console review, I got to wondering...

PNQ: Has there ever been a console that had five games at launch that were legitimately great, with ample replay value?

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/apple-kil...170637989.html

So Apple isn't selling iPod Classics anymore because they "can't get the parts anymore."

PNQ1: Does this seem like a bit of a copout? Haven't they had years and years to buy out whatever companies and patents are required to make said parts in house?
PNQ2: How does not having parts for an older-model iPod Classic preclude the development of a new model? A model that has a similar form factor but more modern parts inside?

If that were where the profit is, I'm sure they'd find a way. I guess the profit must be elsewhere.

To answer Nate's uniform question, TOS Movies by a mile. Those and the ENT outfits are the only ones that look like plausible military uniforms, and I'm a sucker for the dignified, naval look.

That said, the only kind I've actually worn is TNG-style, which was my homemade Hallowe'en costume several years running. Easiest thing in the world -- the only part I had to actually make was the shoulderpiece. Like any Trek-loving kid, I already had a delta badge (they came as bases with the action figures), and a blank red sweatshirt and black pants took care of the rest. Of course, it wouldn't have "passed inspection" lacking the black triangle pieces at the belt and sides, but the point got across.

PlayStation 2 and 3 count, only because they were backwards compatible with their previous generation's games.

...maybe the Wii? Definitely had "ample replay value" attached to it, as Wii Sports, for example, I still see people play. Five games is questionable. Wii also did have backward compatibility with GameCube, but then again I can only count great GameCube games on one hand.

Here's a PNQ:

How many people still remember this place?

there are about half a dozen of us who stop by regularly, and the occasional flyby from a few others. For me fivers are a cross between Jim Wright's Delta Blues and MAD Magazine, so I'm not forgetting this place any time in the next decade or so. 8)

That's another one: who still remembers Delta Blues?

Their front page still has a link back to us, after all.

If you stop by regularly, why no discussion then? Or is it a long dirt road in the middle of the prairie with only one house on it and an annoying starship captain visiting with some of her crew and two beings, one really wanting to die and the moral of the story is that some people want to die and we should let them?

...what was my point again?