Everything Else

As carnival is again over us in full swing and before the World ends in about one month from now [:-):-):-)], something light to ponder for you.

Imagine a huge warehouse full of SGI boxes [everyone on here would love that, for sure]. Ok, I make you two offers:

Offer One: I ask you to make a statement and promise you to let you choose *exactly* ten boxes if the statement is *true*. If the statement is *false*, then you will get either more or less than ten boxes, I'm not saying which, but *not* exactly ten.

Offer Two: I ask you to make a statement and let you choose *twenty* boxes as you wish if the statement is *true*, but none if the statement is *false*.

Which of my offers would you accept?

I'd say "offer one", but my wife would say "number two" because there is more "chance" (or risk, depending on the point of view) that I will not bring anything more at home...

Ok, but which statement would your wife deliver? Which statement would you yourself peruse?

I already have my dream-team of SGI boxes so I don't need any more (I can only use one at a time anyways!) so let's suppose nuuumbré #1 so I can provide a false statement and enjoy a fun game of chance.

Now if on offer was something like a truckload of pies or a porsche ?? Although I admit, I had to re-read your post 4 times before I understood the question.

Kind of the feel the same, while yes I wish I had a maxed out Onyx 4 enclosure, definitely wouldn't some of the "nice to have" machines, keeping the wife happy with a 38U IBM Rack in our living room is hard enough as it is.

@guard: you are free to replace the warehouse full of SGI boxes with truckloads of pies [I myself like apple-pie {Apfelstrudel} but afterwards my stomach would probably be out of order] or porsches [how many could you drive at the same time anyways?], and rephrase the puzzle accordingly...

Well, since this thread is strictly for amusement, carnival is here and you only need to ponder something light, I must confess to having been a bit underhanded - I would *never* make you Offer One!

Why not? Because you could have said that I will neither give you exactly ten boxes nor exactly all of the warehouse's boxes [or, if suitably phrased, truckloads of pies or all the porsches in the world, or - for that matter - 100 million dollars] - and so you could win whatever you want and I would be completely bankrupt...

I don't think I would have thought of that, very sneaky...

Offer on / offer two - doesn't matter. Statement: I will get some SGI boxes.

Oskar, when you're not puzzling out the secrets of the universe, have you ever been to the Spanish Riding School ?

Yes.

BTW, I trust your precious collection of Chinese ceramic puzzle vessels is growing.

Cool. That's on my "before I die" list. Is it as spectacular as it should be ?

Them tourists think it is.

Not a glowing endorsement Tourists here love the Pearl Tower and all that crap, too ... sigh.

Whatever guide books tell you about a city or country - it's never the real thing.

Try again.

Dude, there are still 4 months before Lent...

Carnival season starts the 11 of November (at 11:11)

(11 is fools number)

It wasn't the guide books tho ... before Disney, before that troupe of imposters that toured the US, the head of the school (Alan Podhoesky ?) wrote an excellent book about riding. This was long before dressage became popular .... loved the book, hoped that the reality matched up.

But I am not surprised if, like everything else, money has ruined the golden goose. We should ban money. It's a con game anyhow and all it does is ruin anything of quality.

Ah, I see. Apparently "Carnival" refers to different times of the year across the globe, so more like " German (ic) Carnival Season" no?

I thought that was the beginning of intermission ...


Over here, when you take the 11 bus it means you are walking. 11 looks like two legs