GNU Christmas

15 respostas [Última entrada]
jxself
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Joined: 09/13/2010

For the holidays, here's GNU Christmas:

https://jxself.org/gnu-xmas.shtml

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

Nice, although I am more into Grav-Mass: https://stallman.org/grav-mass.html

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

> throwing a ball or fruit back and forth.

I don't understand, when I throw a fruit it does not bounce back. I must be doing something wrong.

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

Because your faith in Grav-Mass is insufficient. You are clearly not a true believer.

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

I thought maybe it works with magical fruits only.

Avron

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Joined: 08/18/2020

Thanks for reminding that, I'll print some of the cards.

I like 牛诞节快乐, Frohe Schwernachten and Feliz Gravidad, as they manage to refer to Newton or gravity by changing only one syllab of the traditional formula. I don't have any good idea in French unfortunately.

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

"Le père Newton va passer" ?
"Bonne masse de minuit" ?

Rather dull, sorry. Not easy indeed. French language should be banned, let us all speak Volapük instead.

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

That's great! I can hear Bing Crosby singing it. He would have done a wonderful rendition.

"Down to the very last byte" could be a closing line to rhyme with "write".

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

This year, in order to celebrate Grav-Mass, I wrote a little python script that tells you what would happen if the moon (L for Luna) decided to come closer to our home planet (T for Terra). Here is a screenshot. Yes, the moon is red and proportions may vary. Users can move both celestial bodies using steps half the size of the moon.

I am now working on an automated Terra-Luna system where they would ultimately crash and destroy the tk window in the process. That will probably happen next year. For now, I only hope my calculations are not too far off the mark. Newton might in fact have been born on January 4th. That calls for ten days of non-stop celebration.

space_crunch.png
Magic Banana

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We actually know when Newton was born. The problem comes from the choice of the calendar to express that date: https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/calendrical-confusion-or-just-when-did-newton-die/

Isaac Newton was born on December 25th 1642, according to the Julian calendar, which was used at the time in England, where he was born. England only adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, after Newton's death. The Gregorian calendar was already used in the European Catholic countries before Newton's birth. For them, Isaac Newton was born on January 4 1643.

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

> We actually know when Newton was born.

Nobody actually cares which year Newton was born, but we all know he said the end of the world would not happen before 2060. Which sounds like an unbearably long time to suffer in the company of the unsufferable know-it-all among us.

As it happens, eveybody agrees he was in fact born on January 4th, which would make RMS's suggestion fall flat, according to the very laws Grav-Mass is celebrating.

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

Newton was born at -10318831920. That should settle it. Although of course, we are still talking about nearly four century old sources, when date and time of biological birth were not considered as crucial markers as today and sometimes reported with creative zeal.

In fact I got the info there: http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/the-ten-days-of-newton.

I answered my own post, so you can correct yours and add the quotation marks. :)

Magic Banana

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I do not understand what I should correct. The third paragraph behind your link confirms what I wrote:

Newton was born in England on Christmas Day 1642 according to the Julian calendar — the calendar in use in England at the time. But by the 1640s, much of the rest of Europe was using the Gregorian calendar (the one in general use today); according to this calendar, Newton was born on Jan. 4, 1643.

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

Oh I see.

I thought you had been quoting from the link you posted above, hence my suggestion to add quotation marks. In fact you had been rephrasing from the same link from which I got the info, which is itself referenced in RMS's original page on Grav-Mass. Which you posted higher above, starting the Grav-Mass discussion.

I'm still not sure why you felt you had to interject.

Magic Banana

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Well, just to explain the two Newton's birthdays, which are not due to uncertainty, as one may believe at first.

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

We have decided that we cannot believe you on that point. Nobody can be born at two different times, and thus have two birthdays.

Except of course, Schrödinger's cat, but that would mean entering an entirely different domain where physics and zoology meet.

Have a nice Grav-Mass anyway. Or a good Grass-Mat, as some have taken to calling it.

I hope we can manage to keep the moon away, at least for the coming ten days.

crunch.png