Chaos

Seems that the maintenance is done. I guess. Things seem to work so I guess it worked. (I totally know what I'm doing...)

Seems legit. You have totally proven the existence of ghosts. There's no need for further analysis on the subject.

Finding the exact battery charge remaining is really complex. There's a lot of chemistry and electrical engineering that goes into these. So there are some weird aberrations sometimes.

But that just copied from Goodreads, or this was the source of Goodreads. (I have no doubt its right, I just am confused xD)

Nifty. I polled some other staffers and they weren't sure. However, I am not sure how accurate the Goodreads page is (and where their source for that is). But I guess we can be reasonably sure it does contain Emperor's Soul now. So thank you!

It's not the major update. I am upgrading some server software required for the big update, though Things are happening with that.

Hello The 17th Shard Discussion forum isn't the right place for this topic. This forum is just for site related issues. However, I have moved this to the Stormlight Archive forum. If you aren't aware, there are a great many Worldhoppers in the cosmere! In fact, Vasher is in Words of Radiance too.

I'm asking Mi'ch what's up. (I didn't really do anything on this giveaway, so I don't know!)

Absolutely no need to apologize for that! We want to make sure stuff like this is right and solid. I believe Windy and others are a bit busy in finding the relevant Scadrial quote, so it will be here for you soon. That is a very relevant question

Tonight I will be doing some server maintenance. This will affect 17th Shard, the Coppermind, Mistborn: The Inquisition, and the TWG Archive. So basically everything on the entire site. This will begin at 11:00pm PDT. It should not take more than an hour and could be even faster. You will probably see weird errors while this occurs but it's okay. I probably won't break anything

If you have specific issues with the interpretations here, please do say so. But I do think there are space concerns. Full quotes take up a huge amount of space. I intend to have future things of this nature to involve direct links, however. Those we will have. That way the balance is better on this issue. This article is already one of the longest articles on 17S news. I like long articles, but they do need to be distilled appropriately. Additionally we generally discuss factoids (with people like Windy, Weiry, Zach, and I, and some more) and stand by minor interpretations made. We are always happy to discuss, however, as is already occurring in the comments.

17S has passed 400,000 posts which is kind of insane when you think about it. Keep on being awesome, guys and gals.

As Oversleep was alluding to, the difference between a variable and a constant is pretty important here with formulas at this stage in mathematics. In the context of differentiation rules, x is implicitly an independent variable of a function. It doesn't need to be called x (integration tables often list the independent variable as u for another reason), but that implicit assumption is pretty important. We're also implicitly saying this is a function of just one variable, thus, a cannot be a variable. That's the error you're making: a must be a constant! It's pretty easy how to see this logic is wrong. Consider f(x) = e^x. We know that f'(x) = e^x as well (it's a defining property of the number e). In this, x is the variable and e is a constant, so the power rule does not apply. The power rule only works with the base being a variable and the exponent being a constant. Obviously f'(x) here is not xe^(x-1), because we knew it was just e^x. You can differentiate things of the form of a constant base with a variable exponent (like b^x) by rewriting b^x = e^((lnb)x) and using the chain rule. The question on what to do with x^x, where both are variables, requires a bit more subtle technique called logarithmic differentiation. This method will also work to derive things like x^sin(x), or any arbitrary functions raised to other arbitrary functions. Starting with y = x^x, take the natural log of both sides. ln y = ln(x^x) By properties of logs, ln y = x ln(x) Now we can take the derivative of both sides, using the product rule on the right: ( ln y )' = ln(x) + x*1/x ( ln y )' = ln(x) + 1 Of course, this is the derivative of the log of y, not y itself. But, the derivative of ln(y) for any y(x) is 1/y*y' by the Chain rule. So, to solve for y', all we must do is multiply by y: y' = y (ln(x)+1) Or, y' = (lnx+1)x^x In other words, what we did with this logarithmic differentiation was we changed this difficult exponentiation into multiplication, where we used the product rule.

I've delayed answering this for a while. I still don't quite know the answer. I'll need to discover what the case is for the new site version, which has a differently constructed search interface.

Alto sax. I wasn't very good at it. Perhaps later in life I'll try the violin. String instruments are way better

I believe I have resolved this issue. My sincerest apologies for the delay.

Serious question: why does it matter? Let us say for a moment that free will exists. Am I going to cook chili tonight? Yes, because that sounds delicious and it gives me a lot of delicious leftovers for future meals. That sounds like synergy. I could also microwave up some terrible garbage out of laziness instead of making said chili. Laziness is highly appealing, too. This is a crossroads. It's a decision. You have the power. Now, if there was some entity who predetermined everything and could see the exact future that occurred, well, does that invalidate my choice? This entity knew I would choose chili billions of years ago. That might sound disheartening, but I didn't know that would be the outcome. Since I cannot see this predestined future, my lack of foresight actually gives me power to act. You don't know what is to come. You are creating your destiny, because you didn't know that destiny. Who cares if some deity or alien knows the future. Unless you've talked with such an entity, there's no practical difference between true free will and the illusion of free will. I might also not be the best person to ask on this, though. I am not a person particularly interested in philosophy. Philosophical questions that can't be answered or are poorly-posed questions are kind of a waste of time. So I don't think about things like "what is the meaning of life." Maybe that's the scientist in me, but I like actual well-posed questions that have actual answers. Not at all. Though I listen to music a lot, I am fairly music illiterate. I don't know many artists and I have a hard time finding new music I like. I don't really listen to lyrics--my brain has a hard time even comprehending them. I can really only comprehend lyrics if they are written out in front of me. Other people I know can remember all the lyrics to many songs they listen to. I'd have to listen a hundred times to get close. I do have favorite artists, but I am afraid I just don't think that way. I have a lot of respect for people who are musically inclined or can play music well, because it is totally alien to me. (Not totally; in middle school I did play an instrument but I have no talent for it.)

In the next update. It will be very obvious when this happens as the site will look very different.

Cog is not referring to the correct thing but even if he was I would certainly not go into details about private matters.

Maybe I will. I mostly just wanted everyone to know what it feels like to be like Emperor Palpatine when he screamed UNLIMITED POWER. It's awesome.

I'm not sure I understand the issue? Is the phrase not in your manuscript of it?

I am going full Emperor Palpatine mode tonight. I actually cackled with glee at the thought of making someone understand their true shame. ...sometimes I am very scary and I am super okay with that.

I do not get paid, and we are not looking for additional administrators. If we were we have an extensive list of people we could select. There is no application process. Stormgate, I will reply to your PM eventually. The request was unusual and I am very busy, so I have not had time to craft a proper response. (We are volunteers, after all.) The plan is that people get paid eventually. This will mean ads on the site. We will make sure the ads are not obtrusive.

Also, I would like to state that this argument is really freaking stupid and participants need to chill out.