Any Questions?

[Doughnut Jimmy]

Glad its not just me missing something obvious then!

[Dotsie]

Is there some deep reference in the "MELON MELON MELON"?

If there is I don't know what it is.

I guess melon is just a funny word in the same way that cheese is.

Surely Hex won't work if it's out of cheese because of the mouse? The melon part was because he caught insanity from the Bursar.

[Tonyblack]

You're right - Hex caught a computer virus.

[LilMaibe]

Me again...
Say, could someone who has the football cards give me the full text form the former Dean's one?
I can't get my hands on them till december and curiosity is killing me.

[meerkat]

Sorry, Meebs, Mine are still in the packet at the back of the book! I don't want to open them up...

[Tonyblack]

I never got any.

But you might try looking at the Picture Cards Forum of the Cunning Artificer's site.

[LilMaibe]

Another one about Moving Pictures, something that actually bothered me for a while (couldn't find the answer in a discussion thread, had hoped it had come up already)

SPOILERS AHEAD

The Thing from the dungeon dimension dies in the end, Death even says something along the lines of 'GOT YOU NOW' or something.

But then, after we once more get the line of 'holy wood dreamed'

Do I got this right that there are actually three entities at Holy Wood?

The guardian, the thing and the spirit of Holy Wood, to which the thing was a parasite?

[anaid]

Question: What is with those knitted wizards in jars?

In Going Postal, they had those Post Humous professors in the Wizards' Pantry. Is there supposed to be a stealth pun hiding in there? Because I don't get it.

I have to admit that I have no idea about that one. I think - and maybe someone here can confirm, that a Jar Wizard is something to do with computers.

I agree that there's probably a joke in there somewhere.

I've got Going Postal here but I haven't read it in years. I'm intrigued now, so I'll definitely re-read it to see if I can find a better explanation, but the first thing that comes to mind when you're thinking about "something to do with computers" is an installation wizard. There's also a Java package called "Wizard" apparently, and when you compile Java programs the result is a ".jar" file. No idea what the "knitting" has to do with it. I'll re-read it, have been wanting to anyway, and who knows I might find something

[anaid]

It was always an error

++?????++ Out of Cheese Error. Redo From Start.'

Hex wrote: +++ Hi Mum Is Testing +++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out Of Cheese Error +++ !!!!! +++ Mr Jelly! Mr Jelly! +++

along with

Hex had been recalcitrant about its calculations, when it had got into a mechanical sulk and had started writing things like'+++ Out of Cheese Error +++'and'+++ Redo From Start +++'

and

+++ Out Of Cheese Error +++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Redo From Start +++

The Archchancellor picked up HEX's latest write-out. It read:
+++ Out Of Cheese Error +++
'Not helpful,' he muttered.

Yes I'm sad that way ....

Some parallels with computer programming on roundworld:
- Out of Cheese Error -> Out of memory error
- Divide by Cucumber Error -> Divide by zero error
- Hi Mum is Testing -> Hello World, I think. (Hello World is a basic program that outputs nothing but the text "Hello World!" and most programming language tutorials start with that.)
- Redo From Start I think comes from the first computers, where your programs were actually cards with holes punched in them and you would spend days writing (punching) a program and then handing it to the operator who would feed it to the machine. More often than not, your program was incorrect and you would have to start over: redo from start. There was no debugging yet, so you would have to repeat this process, each time encountering the next error, until the program was correct.
- MELON MELON MELON -> I can't find synonyms for the word melon, but I think it's a kernel panic. Under Windows known as a Blue Screen of Death. Often abbreviated to BSOD, all-caps.

[Who's Wee Dug]

Redo From Start I think comes from the first computers, where your programs were actually cards with holes punched in them

That would be a comtometer they were phased out in the 70s.

[Square12]

There is the tenuous connection to melons in that Om uses them for shade in SG.

[=Tamar]

Hex wrote: +++ Hi Mum Is Testing +++

Some parallels with computer programming on roundworld:

- Hi Mum is Testing -> Hello World, I think.

There was an old version of either DOS or Windows that started up with a high-level memory test and the screen text read "Hi Mem is Testing". Don't ask me what it meant, I never did know.

[=Tamar]

(quoting Jane but the system won't let me nest that many quotes) "Question: What is with those knitted wizards in jars? In Going Postal, they had those Post Humous professors in the Wizards' Pantry. Is there supposed to be a stealth pun hiding in there? Because I don't get it. "

I have to admit that I have no idea about that one. I think - and maybe someone here can confirm, that a Jar Wizard is something to do with computers. I agree that there's probably a joke in there somewhere.

...the first thing that comes to mind when you're thinking about "something to do with computers" is an installation wizard. There's also a Java package called "Wizard" apparently, and when you compile Java programs the result is a ".jar" file. No idea what the "knitting" has to do with it.

Thanks for the computer angle, I had no idea. About the knitting: believe it or not, in the USA some years ago there was a fad for tiny knitted dolls squished into glass jars, dressed in various costumes - housekeeper, businessman, wizard.... It wasn't as popular as the pet rock, but it lasted for a while.

[anaid]

Now that I'm rereading Going Postal, I'm running into the same trouble I always have when dialogues are muffled and the written text becomes garbled: I seem to be unable to figure out the original sentences.

In Going Postal, Corgi Books paperback (not sure if that narrows it down enough) page 116 there's a dialogue between Moist and the owner of barbershop Hugo's through a speaking tube:

A voice in his ear, faint as a spider trapped in a matchbox, said: 'Scitich wabble nabnab?'

'So kind of you to assist us, Hugo. It's these missing letters. Five missing letters, to be exact'

'Scrik? Shabadatwik? Scritch vit bottofix!'

He heard the muffled expletive though the floor. Via the speaking tube it became 'Vugrs nickbibble!'

Can someone help me?

[Tonyblack]

I'm not sure there's any help to give. This is the equivalent to hearing a one-sided conversation someone is having on a mobile phone. It's not so much what Hugo says as what Moist says - and in particular him pointing out Mr Pump outside.

It seems to me that Hugo very quickly realises that he's either going to hand the letters over nicely or Mr Pump will take them - along with half his shop, one imagines.