asciilifeform: ada suffers from the latter problem also
asciilifeform: but i very much dislike the 'no native compiler exists or can likely ever exist' part; and the 'there are 2 implementations ever made, and only 1 is quasi-usable' part.
asciilifeform: i considered ml as a very, very close contender for 'an ada'
asciilifeform: btw a decent ups has this test built-in, and will eggog if it finds that 3rd pin (ground) does not conduct to cold prong (or, worse, has + voltage on it..)
asciilifeform: which is what i thought davout was asking about.
asciilifeform: but outside of africa mains socket has ~3~ prongs
asciilifeform: they are normally tied together, on an iron stake outside the house, yes
asciilifeform: no, b/w it and cold prong (i.e. the one without 220v on it)
asciilifeform: you cannot; can only try to measure resistance between it and the cold prong
asciilifeform: davout: it could (and in orc dwellings, often is) connected to nothing at all.
asciilifeform: the resistance between ground and 'cold' pin should be immeasurably small, in a properly built socket
asciilifeform: davout: you can tell whether the ground is ~connected~, but that's more or less it
asciilifeform: it wasn't even acutely painful, just same sensation as if you had sat on your hand for a while
asciilifeform: probably on the principle of 'arm writhes in agony, can't think about also vomiting'
asciilifeform: i have monumentally nfi how. but -- worked.
asciilifeform: thing even came with conductive grease, quite like what one finds in descriptions of electric chair, when head is shaved and lathered so as to conduct well
asciilifeform: somehow the pain switched off the motion-sickness circuit.
asciilifeform: a wristwatch-shaped thing that put current through left wrist
asciilifeform: at one time, when i actually had to ride this train every day, i found a barbaric voodoo cure that worked 100%
asciilifeform: or (at the risk of sounding like complete idiot, because i did not play it) alchemy in eulora, it works there, but meatspace 'alchemy' is considerably more expensive, painful, and rewards -- few and far between, and most practitioners live and die without accomplishing ~anything...☟︎
asciilifeform: and, while mircea_popescu played 'meat doom', it is not a pleasure available 'on tap' to everybody.
asciilifeform: so it only exists in imagination, in games, just like you cannot go and play 'meat tetris' very well by digging a real hole and throwing stones into it
asciilifeform: to briefly revisit orig. thread, the thing i found appealing about 'air shooters' as a boy, was not the abstract 'grease wank' of 'oooh, engines, and gears' but the quick-with-your-eyes-hands-feet-shootout aspect of the game, which is not something that exists today in meatspace even in actual air combat (where you program the rocket, fire, and go home)
asciilifeform: in usa this is even officially permitted, you can buy certain types of machine and fly unlicensed so long as you do it over the ocean where nobody has to clean up your smashed carcass
asciilifeform: thestringpuller: i dun think the crop duster farmer can Officially certify you etc.
asciilifeform: thestringpuller: if you have one already and can convince instructor to go up in it -- might be cheaper.
asciilifeform: thestringpuller: it's generally the machine rental time that is 90% of the cost iirc.
