[extropy-chat] Bill Gates and Petals Around the Rose

[Johnius]

"Slawomir Paliwoda" wrote:
> http://member.melbpc.org.au/~lborrett/computing/petals-bg.htm
>:)

	Thanks for this; it allowed me to find out what y'all
	were talking about (I don't have shockwave).  On the
	other hand, it made me feel quite stupid.  I was trying
	to guess the algorithm using what looked like the tops
	of the dice (facing 'up'), rather than using the sides
	'facing' the reader.  So, I thought I had it on the first
	roll, only to fall flat on my face for the second. I was
	baffled, so I tried the third, again I drew a blank and
	had no clue what to do.  At that point, it occurred to me
	that maybe I was using the wrong sides of the dice, and
	then I got it.  So, I don't know if that counts as three
	rolls or as one (or as "six"?!) ... all I know for sure 
	is that I was more stupid than I ought to have been :-)

	Meanwhile, the name of the game reminds me of a movie
	I saw recently called "The Name of the Rose", with Sean
	Connery as a kind of Sherlock-Holmes monk in the middle
	ages.  The story was written by Umberto Ecco (sp?), who
	was/is known for semiotic theory, I believe.  It occurs
	to me that many of you here might enjoy playing that
	game, if you haven't seen the movie or read the book.
	The book might be much better; I suspect the movie was
	quite dumbed down for mass audiences (and I also suspect
	that it wasn't dumbed down enough, hence wasn't popular
	... even if it did have superstar Connery in it...).

	Johnius