I am Mumberthrax. Feel free to Ask Me Anything.

[Mumberthrax]

I've recently returned from a ~3 month stint without internet access, and am quite happy to be back. I'm (edit 4/2014): a former (/edit) admin for the survival server, s.nerd.nu, a moderator/owner of /r/Morrowind, /r/ElderScrolls, and original creator of /r/retiredgif (though it wasn't my idea and I didn't help out much with it) on reddit.com. I also founded ThraxCo, (which later was rebranded Thrax Industries) a public works company on the survival server - though most of our successful projects were relegated to revisions 19 and 20.
 
I like minecraft, conspiracy theories and the paranormal, science fiction, gardening, and backpacking. I'm a vegetarian, a Texan, not really affiliated with any political parties, and not really affiliated with any religions though I do take the subject of spirituality and philosophy fairly seriously.
 
Ask me anything you like. :)

Edited April 4, 2015 by Mumberthrax

[BeastBruiser]

How did you survive without 3 months of internets? Did you suffer withdrawals? 

Are you experiencing culture shock from a sudden reemergence in the internets?

[jllmprrt]

What's your thoughts on the air horn remix of Darude - Sandstorm

[Mumberthrax]

How did you survive without 3 months of internets? Did you suffer withdrawals? 

Are you experiencing culture shock from a sudden reemergence in the internets?

 

I survived by focusing on creative projects and studying python, intermixed with playing skyrim and singleplayer feed the beast, and then flying to new orleans to attend a very long vietnamese funeral and driving my great aunt around town. I didn't experience any physiological symptoms, though there were times when i went to do something and realized i couldn't.

 

The most shocking thing is how this whole ISIS business popped up out of nowhere. It's crazy how quickly people become terrified of a boogeyman when they're handed one. To answer your question more directly though, I suppose yes. It's tricky trying to catch up on everything that has happened, but I'm getting along.

[Mumberthrax]

What's your thoughts on the air horn remix of Darude - Sandstorm

 

Do you mean this?

 

I found it to be repetitive and slightly irritating. What do you think of it?

[SirTacoface]

What is your favorite thing about the elder scrolls series? They are on the top of my list of favorite games I have ever played, especially morrowind.

 

How does it feel to be vegetarian? Every one I have met are over optimistic, it scares me.

 

What is your favorite kind of music to listen to?

 

What is your favorite mexican restaraunt?

 

What is your favorite TV show?

 

Are you into woodworking?

[Aypop]

What's your favorite kind of music?

 

Which programming languages do you know? Which ones do you want to know?

 

What's your favorite classic computer science problem?

 

You're a diagnostic medical doctor and have a burn patient with an autoimmune disease (let's assume multiple sclerosis). How do you proceed?

[Mumberthrax]

What is your favorite thing about the elder scrolls series? They are on the top of my list of favorite games I have ever played, especially morrowind.

 

I think my favorite thing is that it's like a whole world you can explore, and particularly in the case of Morrowind, there's always some detail in every nook and cranny that give the world a depth and it's own history. The developers really put a lot of time into that on Morrowind, and that's why it's one of my favorite video games, and the game I've played more than any other except Minecraft.

 

How does it feel to be vegetarian? Every one I have met are over optimistic, it scares me.

 

It feels about the same? It's hard to quantify considering there have been many other things different in my life since becoming vegetarian such that I can't say for sure whether they are attributed to being vegetarian alone or if they are due to other variables. I will say that I'm probably more emotionally sensitive now than I used to be, and when I was first trying out vegetarianism I felt like I had a greater amount of short term memory available - though I was also eating tons of fresh fruits and vegetables at the time which I unfortunately don't do as much now.

 

What is your favorite kind of music to listen to?

 

nowadays I guess I would say electronic or video game remixes/covers might be a favorite... but I like a fair variety of stuff which I don't know all the genre names for. I have a plug.dj playlist that isn't bad if you want to listen to it. :)

 

What is your favorite mexican restaraunt?

 

uhh.. lets see... well, On The Border is alright, but i guess that's "Tex-Mex". Panchos was good cause they had the neat little flag thingy on the table when you needed the waiter but i haven't been to one of those in years. Freebirds burritos are not bad, but that's probably barely mexican food. Oh wait, Rosa's is cool because they sell freshly made tortillas by the package in their drive through. Yeah Rosa's works.

 

What is your favorite TV show?

 

Probably Star Trek: The Next Generation. That or Dragon Ball.

 

Are you into woodworking?

 

I whittled a thing once with my pocketknife for a boy scout thing, and my parents gave me a wood burning thing once but I never used it. I can use a table saw if I need to, but it's not a hobby. So I guess the answer is not really.

 

Thanks for the questions! :D

[Mumberthrax]

What's your favorite kind of music?

 

I answered this one just a moment ago, so see my last comment. :D

 

Which programming languages do you know? Which ones do you want to know?

 

I know Autohotkey, some python, some lua, some of a custom language based on java used to create NPCs in an old game called Graal that was sort of a snes Zelda clone but not really, and uhh... some basic. I could probably cobble together something functional in any of those with a little bit of time, but it wouldn't be pretty. :P

 

I'd like to learn more of Python, Java, Javascript, C++ or C#, and maybe perl or ruby. Basically in that order of priority.

 

What's your favorite classic computer science problem?

 

I'm not sure what the classic computer science problems are. I have never taken a comp sci or programming class, and don't really consider myself anything more than an amateur when it comes to programming. I could share some of the problems I attempted to solve in the past with programming though that I enjoyed! So, one time i wanted to make a thing that would generate levels/maps automatically for that graal game. I was a complete noob, but i had autohotkey at my disposal and the internet. So I spent days on this thing that used a combination of xml and a text-based graphics file format and all manner of ridiculously roundabout ways of doing things because i just didn't know any better. I did it in baby steps, just solving the problem one step at a time. I finally activated the script and it worked! Sort of! I had it generating coastline from a combination of like 20-30 different tiles, making sure they were next to sensible neighboring tiles, but the map it generated was ALL coastline tiles, no water, and no land. BUT DAMNIT IF IT WASN'T PROPERLY CONTIGUOUS COASTLINE! It made these super thin longish islands. I was proudly disappointed in my efforts. That was my first major success/failure in programming. I don't know if that answers your question at all. You're welcome.  :)

 

You're a diagnostic medical doctor and have a burn patient with an autoimmune disease (let's assume multiple sclerosis). How do you proceed?

 

I notify my colleagues that I seem to be suffering from dramatic amnesia and cannot recall any of my time in medical school or my past experiences as a physician, and am therefore not qualified to handle this patient, and that they must take over for me.

 

If this is not possible and this patient truly is depending on my actions, then I assess the severity of the burns, whether any vital organs appear to be damaged or not. I know nothing about multiple sclerosis and very little about autoimmune diseases so my approach is likely going to focus on the physical damage alone. If there happen to be other medical professionals present, I'd seek their counsel and follow from that of course, but if not, then my first order of business is to stop any major bleeding. I'm assuming this patient has severe third degree burns. First cleaning my hands (if possible), If there's some gauze, then I need to jam that in there. If we have some kind of anesthetic, then the patient is probably going to need some. If the patient is coherent, I'll ask them how they're doing, try to keep them calm, assure them everything is going to be alright. If nobody has called emergency medical services already then this should happen asap. If I'm not going to have any backup, then I'll have to muddle through I guess. uhh... let's see. clean the wounds with some povidone-iodine? loosely dress the wounds to allow air flow, but protection from dirt/contamination. treat for shock by elevating the legs...

 

wow, this is seriously making me consider doing a refresher on my first aid skills. :-/

 

Thank you for the questions!

[jllmprrt]

Do you mean this?

 

I found it to be repetitive and slightly irritating. What do you think of it?

same

[EeHee2000]

How do I quickscope? 

What're your thoughts on nerd.nu's current state? 

[Mumberthrax]

How do I quickscope?

 

I've never heard of this before, much less accomplished it, but I have looked it up and there seem to be a few strategies that people employ to accomplish quickscoping.

 

Urban Dictionary gives a brief rundown of the process. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=quick%20scope

and wikihow has several methods of accomplishing it: http://www.wikihow.com/Quick-Scope-on-Call-of-Duty-4

 

I'm uncertain in what all games this process is applicable, though i imagine it works for a few more than just call of duty 4. If you have more specific questions I can try and find more information. :]

 

What're your thoughts on nerd.nu's current state?

 

Well obviously S is not very populous currently, and folks are ready for a new revision - preferably one that is enjoyable for a longer period of time. P seems to be off to a great start with it's new revision. C is is looking great too (really really like the spawn signboards/tutorial). Since I've been away for a few months I'm still not super familiar with recent cultural developments, but I know we've got some new admins who seem to be settling in well, we've had a few dramatic incidents to gossip about, and our techadmins are still doing a rocking job keeping the servers up and functioning. There are people who love playing minecraft, who love playing on nerd.nu, and that sounds like a healthy situation to me. Financially as far as I'm aware, we're doing well, thanks to the generous donations from all of you, so we can continue hosting the servers for all of us to play on.

 

Overall I'd give nerd.nu an A-, for exceeding most expectations while still having room for improvement. I may be biased in favor of the servers though, so bear that in mind. ;)

 

Thanks for the questions!

[kittypuppet]

Do you even?

[Mumberthrax]

Do you even?

 

Yes. :]

[XkinOEC]

What are your plans to fix some of the massive game-breaking additions that were placed on S such as prison pearls. (Where a player legit came crying to me about being permanently trapped within an obsidian block area, threatening to leave forever if it happens again)

[roastnewt]

What are your plans to fix some of the massive game-breaking additions that were placed on S such as prison pearls. (Where a player legit came crying to me about being permanently trapped within an obsidian block area, threatening to leave forever if it happens again)

 

I don't think I've ever read a more loaded question :P

[djt832]

Morrowind is one of my all time favorite games too! 

 

Any big projects in the works for Thrax Industries in the near future? 

 

Where does Thrax Industries rank on the "best companies to work for" list?

[Mumberthrax]

What are your plans to fix some of the massive game-breaking additions that were placed on S such as prison pearls. (Where a player legit came crying to me about being permanently trapped within an obsidian block area, threatening to leave forever if it happens again)

 

I have never been comfortable with the prison pearl plugin. It works on civcraft because they're a political simulation server, where people make alliances and collectively investigate and punish contemptible people or people who in their judgment misuse pearls or other tools. To introduce so many new changes to our server so suddenly, to a culture that hasn't learned to handle them in a way that everyone feels harmoniously about, was a gamble and I'm not certain it really worked out - and that's ok! It's a learning experience. Even when stuff gets shitty, you can usually learn something useful from it in some way or another and can usually apply that knowledge to make better choices in the future.

 

Minecraft with PvP can be said to be "just a game", and that phrase can be repeated even under circumstances where it is fun and games for one party at the expense of fun for another. It can be and has been used to attempt to excuse harassment, trolling, and other unpleasant things that I don't want to get into here. S has had a problem with a group of people who push the envelope too far for a long time - there's something about the culture that seems to hold onto this sadistic trend. I've seen very kind young players fall into association with groups where this behavior is common, and those players begin developing patterns of rule violations for trolling and harassment in the same fashion. It makes me feel very sad, and in a way guilty for not having prevented it somehow. Maybe it's not just S, maybe it's a larger problem with online gaming, but I'm not comfortable with it.

 

It is a game, and that shouldn't mean that it doesn't matter. TheRandomnatrix once said it better than I seem to be able to currently:

 

I've been mostly avoiding this post due to it being survival and a figurative landmine. However, I absolutely hate it when people just say a particular game is JUST a game when arguing about such and such. For arguing purposes, it completely invalidates anything on this subreddit. To me, by saying that, you pretty much state that any serious discussion pertaining to minecraft is utterly pointless, which is incredibly unproductive. While true, minecraft is a game made for entertainment purposes, the actions people choose while playing can be a reflection of their own personalities in the real world. I find the ramifications of that incredibly interesting to observe, and it opens fun philosophical issues drawing parallels to everyday life, albeit in a blockier format. By saying this is JUST a game, you dismiss a lot of that. And even if you want to go ahead and classify minecraft as just a thing that only people can enjoy as mindless entertainment, some people spend ours a day playing said game. Are you going to deny them fun by not allowing others to improve the environment they play in by drawing lines as to how much thinking they can put into discussions? So go ahead. Tell others to take a step back with their thinking, but I suggest you do the same.

http://www.reddit.com/r/mcpublic/comments/1328sy/being_a_dick_rule/c7087ba?context=2

 

Anyway, long philosophical rants aside, we're here to have fun for everybody, not at the expense of others. Being killed in a PvP game is normal. Being made unable to play at all is not. It's why we had camping rules. It's why I won't be in support of prison pearl on S unless there are cultural changes that make it a manageable challenge and not something that will be abused to deprive others of the ability to play on or enjoy our server. Maybe if we leave it on for long enough then that culture will develop of its own accord, but I think we can try some other things first, before any further experiments with that.

 

What other additions to the server do you feel are game-breaking?

 

edit: also thank you for this question! I'm very happy to answer any more about S or nerd.nu in general!

[Mumberthrax]

Morrowind is one of my all time favorite games too!

 

Nice. :D

 

Any big projects in the works for Thrax Industries in the near future?

 

I have a list of projects I've wanted to do, some of which have more work done on them than others, but none that I've been actively working on lately or planning on putting into effect just yet. Right now my main priority is making the server enjoyable from an admin perspective rather than as a builder/player. The last time I tried to do both at once didn't really work out so well (see: Thrax Ind. Arena League). However, maybe if I put a little bit of effort into building up the ranks of Thrax Industries, provide an avenue through which others can work together and manage the projects as leaders with me just there to guide now and then, we could see some things happen sooner rather than later.

 

• I still want to see a skill-tier sort of arena league attempted (including clan/team-based competitions), though i don't know if we have the numbers yet to support a competition that large.
• I'd love to see a PvP school.
• I have a number of PvP style games on my list, a few of which have WIP builds associated. Hell, one of them is basically ready in the lab except for installing a few more dispenser mechanisms and designing/setting up flag stations.

 

The problem with some of these things is that they require participants, whether in construction, maintenance, or just actually playing it. And too, S revisions are brief for the amount of time invested in making them. I've considered making them on P or C, if I can get the PvP regions approved, but that would kind of detract from S. I could see about maybe having some kind of throwback list of awesome builds where things from old maps get pasted into the new ones, but that might be considered aboose of powers. :P

 

Something that isn't Thrax Industries or even S-specific per se but which I still think would be awesome is a nerd.nu history project. Creating a timeline of events from our past, and incorporating it into the wiki or website. We're one of the oldest minecraft servers out there - we surely shouldn't allow our past or the lessons learned to be fragmented and lost. But again, that requires some time/energy investment that I'm not sure I can focus on at the moment.

 

Where does Thrax Industries rank on the "best companies to work for" list?

 

Probably not where I'd like it to be, considering we have no infrastructure currently apart from the brand, an inactive subreddit, a laboratory, and the ideas I've jotted down in my notes. :P

 

That said, if anyone is interested in what we stand for, you're welcome to join in and be considered a member. It's an organization dedicated to builds and projects created by players for players, which enrich the experience of the nerd.nu servers, usually on s.nerd.nu. Think Road Builder's Association or Spleef Club on P, or the massive Dome projects on C. On S rev 19 we had a public lending library, a large diverse public farm, Halcyon road providing access to build space near spawn, a post office and parcel delivery service, and a commercial district road near spawn which supported a fantastic pumpkin pie factory. On rev 20 the city of Egreth was built with a similar intention though not specifically under Thrax Ind. branding, and then we had the trading post near spawn. They aren't all necessarily carebear type projects - indeed I had intended to incorporate some heavily PvP-oriented builds on rev 20 to accompany Egreth, but ran out of steam. If it sounds like something you'd be interested in working toward on S, anyone is welcome to contact me about what possibilities we can create together.

 

Thanks for the questions! :)

[dizney07]

With the recent emergence of Dizney Co. (most recently known for it's Condos on rev 25 of S, and major plans for a Dizney World in the current PvE rev) what do you think about the competition that might be brought in future S (and P) revisions?

[Mumberthrax]

With the recent emergence of Dizney Co. (most recently known for it's Condos on rev 25 of S, and major plans for a Dizney World in the current PvE rev) what do you think about the competition that might be brought in future S (and P) revisions?

 

That's a great question and I can say without a doubt that Thrax Industries will do anything we can in terms of crushin- uh i mean helping a young whelp of a company like Dizney Co. to achieve it's highest potential. Whether it means planting bombs- er, FLOWERS, you know terraces and stuff... sharing our knowledge and vision through indoctrinatio- um goodwill consultation services, or outright conquerin- i mean collaborating with your cute little company, there's a lot Thrax Industries has to offer directly. In terms of competition, you know how the saying goes about healthy competition being good for everyone especially when young upstarts get their comeuppan- i mean breathe fresh life into the markeplace etc. etc. I predict good things in the future, for Thrax Industries and possibly for your whatever co. thingy.

 

:D

[dizney07]

That's a great question and I can say without a doubt that Thrax Industries will do anything we can in terms of crushin- uh i mean helping a young whelp of a company like Dizney Co. to achieve it's highest potential. Whether it means planting bombs- er, FLOWERS, you know terraces and stuff... sharing our knowledge and vision through indoctrinatio- um goodwill consultation services, or outright conquerin- i mean collaborating with your cute little company, there's a lot Thrax Industries has to offer directly. In terms of competition, you know how the saying goes about healthy competition being good for everyone especially when young upstarts get their comeuppan- i mean breathe fresh life into the markeplace etc. etc. I predict good things in the future, for Thrax Industries and possibly for your whatever co. thingy.

 

:D

 

Well them we welcome the competition of a company that's been out of business since rev 20. Good luck to you sir, and if you need any help, don't hesitate to let us know :D

[Mumberthrax]

What is your favorite thing about the elder scrolls series? They are on the top of my list of favorite games I have ever played, especially morrowind.

 

actually thinking about this a little more, at least on morrowind, my favorite thing might be accumulating overpowered unique items/artifacts. boots of blinding speed, that lich's robe, helm of oreyn bearclaw, those white gauntlets i forgot the name of, mage's staff, that mehrunes dagon dagger, amulet of shadows, etc.

[nickeynickey123]

TOS or TNG? Choose wisely captain.

[Mumberthrax]

TOS or TNG? Choose wisely captain.

 

TNG. Both have their flaws, and the high points in TNG far outshine the high points in TOS in my opinion. DS9 may be my favorite trek series, though I disliked the ending, and I think sisko's acting in the first part of the series is a bit weird, and the long story arcs in the latter part kind of put me off - but the characters are great.