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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • Depending on the specific game itself, we can boil down the multiple-stat problem in a few ways. If the goal is to get all the stats as high as possible evenly, then we can assign each stat a multiplier based on how low it is. Fixing lower stats becomes worth more than buffing higher stats. That multiplier would depend on the game, on how much it punishes the low stat. The multiplier itself might end up being a whole new problem to solve, but for now I’ll just say its not my problem and call it X.

    Whatever X is though, every stat can then be reduced to a single value using it. Super-low fortitude should be buffed over already-high mana according to X, so all of the numerical values in the game become directly comparable at any stage in this problem. Then I expect it will be equivalent to the knapsack problem. Each item in the game will boost several stats in certain ways, and all of those boosts can be combined using X to become our item value in the knapsack problem.

    So I consider it to be the knapsack problem + figuring out X (which might be NP-complete on its own, depending on the game).





  • Typewriters.

    They had bars that needed to physically move, and so staggering them helped them not collide and get jammed.

    If you imagine a bar coming from the center of each key towards your screen, you can see how the staggering was helpful. For instance, M misses J and K above it, naturally, but it also slightly misses I and the 8 above that.

    It’s a great solution for a nonexistent problem in keyboards.








  • Well they still have a finite life and are less replaceable than a battery. Even if it quadrupled the lifespan (which is a reasonably generous estimate given OP’s 4-year duration and wikipedia telling me supercapacitors last 10-15 years), it would still eventually need to be replaced and that would generally require resoldering it.

    I think a much better solution is 2 battery slots, one to be a backup battery, unused, and then when needed, an LED on the mobo can be turned on. Honestly OP could jury-rig up a similar system if he wanted to, although it’d be a bit ugly and anytime something is jury-rigged I don’t really think of it as reliable.



  • The number of people was a political compromise between individual rights and States rights, but so was a Senate and House.

    The electoral college was primarily designed to enable states to vote despite a communication delay that could take months.

    It did great at that, actually. How would California have up to date info on what’s going on in Washington when the fastest mode of travel was a horse? It wouldn’t.

    Instead of voting based on information that’s outdated and potentially inaccurate, best to pick some people you trust to vote in your interests, and send them to Washington. Let them get caught up, and vote how they will as your representative.

    Then States can sort out their own voting time and method, with no real concern for it being simultaneous or consistent because news travels so slow anyway. The important thing was authorized people would show up by the expected federal voting time, and if that happened, everyone did well enough.

    Of course, now they can cast their vote without leaving the state, and coordination is possible, but here we are holding the bag on a lack of accounting for technological progress.



  • They used it to create potions and spells that are equivalent to the medical industry, as well as the beauty industry, sports, frivolous things like that.

    It’s implied serious research goes on, but never really shown.

    There’s also wizard versions of cops, and government officials, naturally.

    Magical knowledge replaces engineering and math as well. A civil engineer’s building design equivalent would be a series of complicated spells put on a small building to make it a massive one inside.

    Also in the books, Hogwarts was really only secret to the muggles, every wizard in Britain knows where it is.

    But imagine all the high schoolers who complain "why do I need to learn algebra, I won’t even need it in [job]. It’s like that. Some won’t need it, but it’s still a useful skill.