Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki - User contributions [en]

Book:Carpe Jugulum

2017-08-20T12:06:24Z

Stevehim: ending fixed

{{Book Data
|title=Carpe Jugulum
|cover=[[File:CarpeJugulum.jpg|thumb|240px|Cover art by Josh Kirby]]
|coauthors=
|illustrator=
|date=5th November 1998
|publisher=Doubleday
|isbn=0385409923
|pages=285
|rrp=
|series=Witches Series
|characters=[[Granny Weatherwax]], [[Nanny Ogg]], [[Agnes Nitt]]
|annotations=yes
|notes=
}}
==Blurb==
[[Mightily Oats]] has not picked a good time to be a [[Omnia|priest]]. He thought he'd come to the mountain kingdom of [[Lancre]] for a simple little religious ceremony. Now he's caught up in a war between [[vampires]] and [[witches magic|witches]], and he's not sure there ''is'' a right side.

There're the witches – young [[Agnes Nitt|Agnes]], who is ''really'' in two minds about everything, [[Magrat Garlick|Magrat]], who is trying to combine witchcraft and nappies, [[Nanny Ogg]], who is far too knowing... and [[Granny Weatherwax]], who is big trouble.

And the vampires are ''intelligent'' – not easily got rid of with a garlic enema or by going to the window, grasping the curtains and saying, "I don't know about you, but isn't it a bit stuffy in here?"

They've got style and fancy waistcoats. They're [[Überwald|out of the casket]] and want a bite of the future.

Mightily Oats knows he has a prayer, but wishes he had an axe.

==Plot==
[[Count de Magpyr]], a vampire from [[Überwald]], and his family travel to [[Lancre]] where they are invited by King [[Verence II]] to attend the naming of [[Esmerelda Margaret Note Spelling of Lancre]], the newly born daughter of Queen [[Magrat Garlick]]. At the party, the vampires announce that they intend to move into Lancre Castle and take over the country, and due to a strange type of hypnotism everyone considers this to be perfectly acceptable. However, young witch [[Agnes Nitt]] and the priest, an [[Omnia|Omnian]] traveller called [[Mightily Oats]] are able to resist their power due to their split personalities. The Count's son [[Vlad de Magpyr|Vlad]] becomes attracted to Agnes, partly because of her resistance.

To make matters worse, the [[Vampires]] have used Self-Help style conditioning to become immune to the conventional menthods of disposing a vampire e.g. garlic, lemons, holy water, poppy seeds, sock theft, daylight and religious symbols. At the same time, they have taken to wearing normal clothes, staying up until noon and drinking wine. Agnes persuades Magrat and [[Nanny Ogg]] to find [[Granny Weatherwax]], their only hope. They find Granny Weatherwax living in a cave in seclusion and are unable to convince her to help.

Soon, they confront the vampires but look to be defeated and the Count only laughs at both their mob and Oats' own attempt at defiance. Granny Weatherwax arrives, stumbling and defeated and hardly intimidating, and the vampires succeed in giving her their bite. Granny appears destined to become a vampire, but afterwards she recovers in the care of Oats. Nanny Ogg travels to the vampires existing residence at [[Don'tgonearthe Castle]] in Überwald, where she meets [[Igor]], the Count's servant. Igor is resentful to the modernised Vampires who have constantly ridiculed his attempts to keep their castle in the same way as the former Count [[Bela de Magpyr]], a far more traditional vampire. He also appears to have a crush on Nanny.

Vlad and his ill-mannered sister [[Lacrimosa de Magpyr|Lacrimosa]] kidnap Agnes Nitt and takes her to Escrow, a town near Dontgonearthe Castle which the the Count considers to be a place of harmony between humans and the Vampires who follow the Count. In fact, the townspeople are totally subjugated to vampires who call in to take blood freely. In the town square, a change comes over the Vampires: Lacrimosa attacks Agnes in a strangely pathetic manner, several townspeople succeed in killing a vampire, and Vlad falls to temptation and bites Agnes although again, there is no permanent effect. It is discovered that the vampires have become weakened, have lost their ability to fly and instead of craving blood, are now becoming desperate for tea and biscuits. They are becoming susceptible to conventional methods of vampire disposal.

Dontgonearthe Castle becomes the scene of a final confrontation between the Vampires and united citizens of Escrow and Lancre. The Vampires have become terrified of their weakness but the Count remains as strong as ever, due to his complete faith in staying immune, and takes baby Esmerelda as a hostage. Granny Weatherwax arrives (having been carried by Oats) and reveals that instead of her being made into a vampire, the vampires have become 'Weatherwaxed'. By sharing her blood, the vampires have inadvertently allowed themselves to be controlled by Granny (via [[Borrowing]]) into not being able to do certain things such as flying or harming young Esme.

The vampires are further horrified when it is revealed that Igor (who considers the loss of his dog to be the last straw) has rebelled against them and brought back the Old Count by pouring blood on his ashes. The traditional thinking of the Old Count quickly proves far more popular with the people from Escrow than modern vampirism. Finally, Oats returns and with a new-found confidence gives the New Count a fatal axe wound, although Granny points out that the vampires may return again after many years, centuries or millennia. The Old Count is left in charge of Escrow by popular demand, and is charged by Granny to teach the two young Magpyrs the "old ways' (ie - stupidity). The three vampires then turn into a flock of magpies and disappear into the darkness of the roof of the castle, while the witches return to Lancre.

==Characters==
===Main Characters===
*[[Granny Weatherwax]]
*[[Nanny Ogg]]
*[[Agnes Nitt]]
*[[Mightily Oats]]
*[[Magrat Garlick]]
*[[Verence II]]
*[[Esmerelda Margaret Note Spelling of Lancre]]
*[[Count de Magpyr]]
*[[Bela de Magpyr]]
*[[Vlad de Magpyr]]
*[[Lacrimosa de Magpyr]]

===Minor Characters===
*[[Igor]]
*[[Scraps]] (or Thcrapth)
*[[Greebo]]
*[[Hodgesaargh]]
*[[Giamo Casanunda]]
*[[Shawn Ogg]]

===Cameos and Mentions===
*[[Brutha]]
*[[Simony]]
*[[Ossory]]
*[[Big Jim Beef]]
*[[Magyrato]]
*[[Carmilla de Magpyr]]
*Mrs [[Patternoster]]
*John and [[Florence Ivy]]
*[[Scorbic]]
*[[Bestiality Carter]]
*[[Big Aggie]]
*[[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]]

==Locations==
*[[Lancre]]
**[[Lancre Town]]
**[[Lancre Castle]]
**[[Lancre Bridge]]
**[[Long Lake Clan|The Long Lake]]
*[[Überwald]]
**[[Slake]] (mentioned)
**[[Don'tgonearthe Castle]]
**[[Klotz]] (mentioned)
**[[Escrow]]
*[[Ohulan Cutash]] (mentioned)
*[[Ghat]] (mentioned)
*[[Kashncari]] (mentioned)

==Things and Concepts==
*[[Phoenix ]]
*[[Nac Mac Feegle]]
*[[Kelda]]
*The [[Muntab]] Question
*[[Ich bin Ein Rattarsedschwein]]
*[[Lancrastian Army Knife]]

==Annotations==
The title of the book is a parody of the phase ''Carpe Diem'' ("Seize the day") and roughly translates as "Go for the throat".

<blockquote><p>
'Buffaloeth,' said Igor, unlocking another door.
'He broke out in them?'
'A herd fell on him. A freak acthident. We don't talk about it.'
</p></blockquote>

Possible reference to the Canadian attraction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-Smashed-In_Buffalo_Jump where natives would drive buffalo off a cliff to kill them. A young warrior wanted to watch the buffalo plunge off the cliff from below. While we don't know his exact thoughts, the last thing to go through his head was... a herd of buffalo.

==Gallery==
{|
|-
| valign="top" | [[File:CJ First.jpg|thumb|120px|First Edition Cover by [[Josh Kirby]]]]
| valign="top" | [[File:CJ Black.jpg|thumb|110px|Paperback 2004]]
| valign="top" | [[File:CJ Tape.jpg|thumb|120px|Audio Cassette]]
| valign="top" | [[File:CJ CD.jpg|thumb|140px|Audio CD]]
| valign="top" | [[File:CJ CDG.jpg|thumb|110px|Cover by Carl D. Galian]]
| valign="top" | [[File:CJ US.jpg|thumb|110px|US Cover]]
| valign="top" | [[File:CJ Zoom.jpg|thumb|110px|Paperback 2012]]
| valign="top" | [[File:CJ CL.jpg|thumb|110px|Collectors Library Edition]]
|}

==External Links==
[http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/carpe-jugulum.html ''Carpe Jugulum'' Annotations - The Annotated Pratchett File]

{{series|before=The Last Continent|series=Discworld|after=The Fifth Elephant}}
{{series|series=Witches|before=Maskerade|after=The Wee Free Men}}

[[Category:Discworld Series|Carpe Jugulum]]
[[Category:Witches Series|Carpe Jugulum]]
[[de:Buch:Ruhig Blut!]]

Talk:Clacks

2017-02-07T07:48:52Z

Stevehim: /* Six Shutters? */ fifth elephant reference

==Six Shutters?==
Does anyone know why [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clacks Wikipedia]] thinks a clacks array only has six shutters? Eight seems obvious and I thought that had been mentioned.--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 04:18, 3 June 2007 (CEST)
*Possibly due to the same reason we have chapter 7a instead of 8 -[[User:Lord rel|Lord rel}} Jun 4 12:42 2007 (IST)
*I thought of the possible dangers, but things come in 7as all the time, and I remember the reference to the sixteen shutters (either both sides or one side of a duplex tower.)--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 14:56, 4 June 2007 (CEST) And in {{T5E}}, just after we meet Skimmer, Lord Vetinari watched the semaphore tower. "All eight of the big shutters facing him were blinking furiously..."
**that would indicated that maybe shutter numbers are not static or that we have a continuity mistake --[[User:Lord rel|Lord rel]] 13:51 05 June 2007
***Not unless someone can find a mention of a six-panel array somewhere in the text. - --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 14:07, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
**** Well, I don't know whether it's anything to go by, but the Clacks Board Game (that's just arrived!) uses 6 shutters. Must say though I was under the impression it was 8 - but I expect that's something I've assumed due to the power of the number. Also, as far as I can tell, they haven't included details on sending numbers, and I can't help but think theres far more combinations of lights possible than they display. --[[User:GallifreyanWitch|Verity]] ([[User talk:GallifreyanWitch|talk]]) 12:28, 21 October 2015 (UTC) Just found an [http://geeksyndicate.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/pic1670734.jpg image of the Clacks Alphabet] used in the game. --[[User:GallifreyanWitch|Verity]] ([[User talk:GallifreyanWitch|talk]]) 13:44, 21 October 2015 (UTC)
** The one Vetinari is watching in The Fifth Elephant has 7a (though Pratchett actually wrote out the number, which might be an oversight, but I'm prepared to accept it means that Vetinari's mind doesn't fear the Soul Eater :) ). Reference is on pg 48 in my copy...the section begins: Lord Vetinari stood at his window, ... The Fifth Elephant --[[User:Stevehim|Stevehim]] ([[User talk:Stevehim|talk]]) 07:48, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

==Practical Matters==

Considering the concentration of computer professionals and general geeks in Discworld fandom, it's odd that I haven't seen much in the way of technical analysis of the Clacks. Perhaps some of the more digital (or just imaginative) contributors could produce some answers to practical problems.
Please add comments, solutions, or just more questions here to see if we can produce a workable model. - --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 13:04, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

: Here's ours: [http://blip.tv/file/4906971 Clacks, phase I]. ''(Unsigned comment by [[User:76.191.219.152|76.191.219.152]] at 18:55, 20 March 2011)''

==Optical==
At eight miles, a clacks array needs to be 138 times wider than one that can just be read at 100 yards. Supposing very sharp-eyed young operators could see four-inch panels at 100 yards, the panels would be 46 feet square and the array nearly 100 feet wide and 250 feet! high. Since towers have been reported to be 150 feet tall, this is unlikely. Therefore we have to assume optical technology from the Counterweight Continent has produced useful telescopes quite quickly since Twoflower's strange lenses.

:In Jingo, Lord Rust has a telescope, which he claims was only invented the previous year. Of course, the Klatchians have had them for ages. Every reason therefore to expect the Clacks had telescopes.--[[User:Solicitr|Solicitr]] 13:24, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

:: According to the Clacks Boardgame yes, they do use telescopes. It also states the distance between towers is around 20 Miles - so based on the above analysis you'd definitely need good lenses. In Raising Steam, Adora mentions every clacksman is equipped with "a very expensive pair of Herr Fleiss's binoculars, made using the very best Uberwald technology". --[[User:GallifreyanWitch|Verity]] ([[User talk:GallifreyanWitch|talk]]) 12:41, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

==Mechanical==
A more manageable 20-by-50-foot array with 9-foot panels is equivalent to a 3/4 inch panel at 100 yards, perhaps readable with a simple telescope. Flashing multiple 9-foot shutters randomly at twice per second would still be difficult with purely mechanical timing and control; the maintenance problems described are understandable.

What powers the mechanism? ([[Golems]] are suggested for the future.)

Is there a reference to the shape of the array? Do we know if it's 1x8, 2x4 etc? Not that it makes a huge difference, but a 1x8 array would imply binary encoding. I've known people to be able to read a binary stream almost as fast as normal text.

A 1x8 would have heavy unusable redundancy. There are eight versions of "one light on" each indistinguishable from each other, and, erm, 7+6+5+4+3+2+1 versions of "two lights on". A rectangular array removes a lot of redundancy, you get two-side-by-side, two-up-down, two-left-diagonal, two-right-diagonal, etc. (unsigned comment by [[User:Jgharston]], 1 Jun 2014)
:Now it occurs to me that the ninth panel above the array mentioned in {{MR}} might be just a visual reference to locate the pattern below, rather than a parity bit or other coding function. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 23:58, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

==Digital==
{{MR}} mentions a separate clock panel above the array of eight. Why would it be synchronous?
Is it, rather, a parity bit?

As with ASCII, etc., the eight bits allow for many control characters and subcodes (the ''overhead'') besides the basic alphabet, but how are these separated? Reading semaphore at all at 120 per minute is a good enough trick without multiplexing; I would expect they read numbers which are interpreted or decoded later, by others, but the operators are said to be able to read the overhead as they go.

Clock rate = 2 : Bit Rate = 16 : Bytes/sec = 2

At this rate, a low-res picture 100 pixels square in 8-bit color takes nearly 11/2 hours, 3/4 hour for 4-bit color duplexed. How good a compression algorithm can Lieutenant [[Blouse]] write?

:Use 8bit CMYK (256 colour) encoding, 1 byte per pixel, 2 bytes/sec, header frames encode the picture size. A 100x100px picture is 10000px or 10002 frames total, so 5001 seconds total transmission time, or just over 83 minutes. You could probably improve on that by encoding something like "pixels 25-95 are colour ccmmyykk" for example. Then is just a matter of creating the right imp for the job. --[[User:Megahurts|Megahurts]] 15:11, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

==Health and Safety==
This has been a difficult area for the industry. The obvious dangers of working at great height can be guarded and on-the-job fatalities are much reduced, but the stress of long periods of intense concentration still produces mental casualties. Attention is now being paid to the expensive [[Klatchian Coffee|Klatchian Coffees]] that are associated with the group.

==Alternatives==
We have already seen faster-than-light communication (including voice) demonstrated with the [[Omniscope]]. Why aren't the technomancers of the [[Unreal Estate]] providing a much better system than the Clacks? The Omniscope works better than their [[Dis-organiser]]; co-ordinating the two they could be as rich as Creosote (or Bill Gates.)

hmm. Would mass use of a magical device such as the omniscope for communication and entertainment also bring certain intractable problems with it? If an Omniscope can see and open a doorway to ''everything'' happening ''everywhere'', this would at the very least make it an Internet analogue in the Discworld.(All you would need would perhaps be a sub-fingernail sized sliver cut from an Omniscope - its ''omni-chip'', maybe, or Central Perception Unit? - , and some sort of magnifying device). And just as the Internet is stupendously popular in our dimension of space and time, so it would be on the Disc. In fact, it could be the next big craze after Music with Rocks In and after the Clicks.

Here lies the problem. Mass popular interest in anything technomantic, given a magical focus, has in the past offered a gateway to things from the Dungeon Dimensions to come in and colonise our plane of reality. And why shouldn't it, as from an Omniscope's point of view, the Dungeon Dimensions are a valid sub-set of ''everything'' and ''everywhere''.

To extend the Internet analogy: these would be some malicious viruses and self-replicating malware should they manage to get onto the Omni-Net! Cue Ponder Stibbons and Hex to write the AV protection? --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 09:00, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Sure, you can see the dangers; I recognise them, but we're talking about Wizards. They don't let the occasional rip in the fabric of reality worry them. They might balk at allowing the general public too much access to their toys, though; simple bloody-mindedness might deter them. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 12:02, 24 May 2008 (UTC)
:: You assume that rips in the fabric of reality would not interfere with any of their 9 moments of food intake. I assure you that even the chance of having to skip even one of them would keep wizards away from the notion of ripping any sorts of fabric. Good heavens! --[[Special:Contributions/94.213.120.101|94.213.120.101]] 11:33, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

==Major Edit==
I think what's called "Light Clacks" here is actually a one-bit optical telegraph, unrelated to the Clacks. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:40, 16 June 2010 (UTC)
*Oh right. Well the characters call it a light clacks in the text, so just assumed. I notice you've grouped it under "Earlier Semaphore" now; it is mentioned after the Clacks introduction in {{TFE}}, but then it could still easily be older technology. Here's the reference if you want to check: ''Monstrous Regiment, Page 137 (Doubleday UK Hardback)''. [[User:JaffaCakeLover|JaffaCakeLover]] 10:08, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

== A little crossover with Roundworld? ==

While doing a little search about the Clacks on Google, I noticed some entries coming up with "ClacksWeb".
Unfortunately this is not a website dedicated to the workings of the Clacks, as I was hoping to find, but is the website associated with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clackmannanshire Clackmannanshire], Britain's Smallest Historic County, located in Scotland. It is otherwise known as "The Wee County" (which naturally brought Feegles to mind) and is usually abbreviated to simply "Clacks".

You know you've got the Disc on you're mind when you see that county name and automatically read it as "Clacksmanshire", and get little visions of a place, probably up towards the Ramtops or Chalk, where Clacksmen might retire to or take a break from the whistling winds and dizzying heights of the towers. --[[User:GallifreyanWitch|Verity]] ([[User talk:GallifreyanWitch|talk]]) 13:21, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

== Semaphore ==

Is it worth noting that semaphore was around for centuries in Discworld? --[[User:Stevehim|Stevehim]] ([[User talk:Stevehim|talk]]) 07:38, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

Talk:Clacks

2017-02-07T07:38:30Z

Stevehim: /* Semaphore */ new section

==Six Shutters?==
Does anyone know why [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clacks Wikipedia]] thinks a clacks array only has six shutters? Eight seems obvious and I thought that had been mentioned.--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 04:18, 3 June 2007 (CEST)
*Possibly due to the same reason we have chapter 7a instead of 8 -[[User:Lord rel|Lord rel}} Jun 4 12:42 2007 (IST)
*I thought of the possible dangers, but things come in 7as all the time, and I remember the reference to the sixteen shutters (either both sides or one side of a duplex tower.)--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 14:56, 4 June 2007 (CEST) And in {{T5E}}, just after we meet Skimmer, Lord Vetinari watched the semaphore tower. "All eight of the big shutters facing him were blinking furiously..."
**that would indicated that maybe shutter numbers are not static or that we have a continuity mistake --[[User:Lord rel|Lord rel]] 13:51 05 June 2007
***Not unless someone can find a mention of a six-panel array somewhere in the text. - --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 14:07, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
**** Well, I don't know whether it's anything to go by, but the Clacks Board Game (that's just arrived!) uses 6 shutters. Must say though I was under the impression it was 8 - but I expect that's something I've assumed due to the power of the number. Also, as far as I can tell, they haven't included details on sending numbers, and I can't help but think theres far more combinations of lights possible than they display. --[[User:GallifreyanWitch|Verity]] ([[User talk:GallifreyanWitch|talk]]) 12:28, 21 October 2015 (UTC) Just found an [http://geeksyndicate.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/pic1670734.jpg image of the Clacks Alphabet] used in the game. --[[User:GallifreyanWitch|Verity]] ([[User talk:GallifreyanWitch|talk]]) 13:44, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

==Practical Matters==

Considering the concentration of computer professionals and general geeks in Discworld fandom, it's odd that I haven't seen much in the way of technical analysis of the Clacks. Perhaps some of the more digital (or just imaginative) contributors could produce some answers to practical problems.
Please add comments, solutions, or just more questions here to see if we can produce a workable model. - --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 13:04, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

: Here's ours: [http://blip.tv/file/4906971 Clacks, phase I]. ''(Unsigned comment by [[User:76.191.219.152|76.191.219.152]] at 18:55, 20 March 2011)''

==Optical==
At eight miles, a clacks array needs to be 138 times wider than one that can just be read at 100 yards. Supposing very sharp-eyed young operators could see four-inch panels at 100 yards, the panels would be 46 feet square and the array nearly 100 feet wide and 250 feet! high. Since towers have been reported to be 150 feet tall, this is unlikely. Therefore we have to assume optical technology from the Counterweight Continent has produced useful telescopes quite quickly since Twoflower's strange lenses.

:In Jingo, Lord Rust has a telescope, which he claims was only invented the previous year. Of course, the Klatchians have had them for ages. Every reason therefore to expect the Clacks had telescopes.--[[User:Solicitr|Solicitr]] 13:24, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

:: According to the Clacks Boardgame yes, they do use telescopes. It also states the distance between towers is around 20 Miles - so based on the above analysis you'd definitely need good lenses. In Raising Steam, Adora mentions every clacksman is equipped with "a very expensive pair of Herr Fleiss's binoculars, made using the very best Uberwald technology". --[[User:GallifreyanWitch|Verity]] ([[User talk:GallifreyanWitch|talk]]) 12:41, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

==Mechanical==
A more manageable 20-by-50-foot array with 9-foot panels is equivalent to a 3/4 inch panel at 100 yards, perhaps readable with a simple telescope. Flashing multiple 9-foot shutters randomly at twice per second would still be difficult with purely mechanical timing and control; the maintenance problems described are understandable.

What powers the mechanism? ([[Golems]] are suggested for the future.)

Is there a reference to the shape of the array? Do we know if it's 1x8, 2x4 etc? Not that it makes a huge difference, but a 1x8 array would imply binary encoding. I've known people to be able to read a binary stream almost as fast as normal text.

A 1x8 would have heavy unusable redundancy. There are eight versions of "one light on" each indistinguishable from each other, and, erm, 7+6+5+4+3+2+1 versions of "two lights on". A rectangular array removes a lot of redundancy, you get two-side-by-side, two-up-down, two-left-diagonal, two-right-diagonal, etc. (unsigned comment by [[User:Jgharston]], 1 Jun 2014)
:Now it occurs to me that the ninth panel above the array mentioned in {{MR}} might be just a visual reference to locate the pattern below, rather than a parity bit or other coding function. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 23:58, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

==Digital==
{{MR}} mentions a separate clock panel above the array of eight. Why would it be synchronous?
Is it, rather, a parity bit?

As with ASCII, etc., the eight bits allow for many control characters and subcodes (the ''overhead'') besides the basic alphabet, but how are these separated? Reading semaphore at all at 120 per minute is a good enough trick without multiplexing; I would expect they read numbers which are interpreted or decoded later, by others, but the operators are said to be able to read the overhead as they go.

Clock rate = 2 : Bit Rate = 16 : Bytes/sec = 2

At this rate, a low-res picture 100 pixels square in 8-bit color takes nearly 11/2 hours, 3/4 hour for 4-bit color duplexed. How good a compression algorithm can Lieutenant [[Blouse]] write?

:Use 8bit CMYK (256 colour) encoding, 1 byte per pixel, 2 bytes/sec, header frames encode the picture size. A 100x100px picture is 10000px or 10002 frames total, so 5001 seconds total transmission time, or just over 83 minutes. You could probably improve on that by encoding something like "pixels 25-95 are colour ccmmyykk" for example. Then is just a matter of creating the right imp for the job. --[[User:Megahurts|Megahurts]] 15:11, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

==Health and Safety==
This has been a difficult area for the industry. The obvious dangers of working at great height can be guarded and on-the-job fatalities are much reduced, but the stress of long periods of intense concentration still produces mental casualties. Attention is now being paid to the expensive [[Klatchian Coffee|Klatchian Coffees]] that are associated with the group.

==Alternatives==
We have already seen faster-than-light communication (including voice) demonstrated with the [[Omniscope]]. Why aren't the technomancers of the [[Unreal Estate]] providing a much better system than the Clacks? The Omniscope works better than their [[Dis-organiser]]; co-ordinating the two they could be as rich as Creosote (or Bill Gates.)

hmm. Would mass use of a magical device such as the omniscope for communication and entertainment also bring certain intractable problems with it? If an Omniscope can see and open a doorway to ''everything'' happening ''everywhere'', this would at the very least make it an Internet analogue in the Discworld.(All you would need would perhaps be a sub-fingernail sized sliver cut from an Omniscope - its ''omni-chip'', maybe, or Central Perception Unit? - , and some sort of magnifying device). And just as the Internet is stupendously popular in our dimension of space and time, so it would be on the Disc. In fact, it could be the next big craze after Music with Rocks In and after the Clicks.

Here lies the problem. Mass popular interest in anything technomantic, given a magical focus, has in the past offered a gateway to things from the Dungeon Dimensions to come in and colonise our plane of reality. And why shouldn't it, as from an Omniscope's point of view, the Dungeon Dimensions are a valid sub-set of ''everything'' and ''everywhere''.

To extend the Internet analogy: these would be some malicious viruses and self-replicating malware should they manage to get onto the Omni-Net! Cue Ponder Stibbons and Hex to write the AV protection? --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 09:00, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Sure, you can see the dangers; I recognise them, but we're talking about Wizards. They don't let the occasional rip in the fabric of reality worry them. They might balk at allowing the general public too much access to their toys, though; simple bloody-mindedness might deter them. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 12:02, 24 May 2008 (UTC)
:: You assume that rips in the fabric of reality would not interfere with any of their 9 moments of food intake. I assure you that even the chance of having to skip even one of them would keep wizards away from the notion of ripping any sorts of fabric. Good heavens! --[[Special:Contributions/94.213.120.101|94.213.120.101]] 11:33, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

==Major Edit==
I think what's called "Light Clacks" here is actually a one-bit optical telegraph, unrelated to the Clacks. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:40, 16 June 2010 (UTC)
*Oh right. Well the characters call it a light clacks in the text, so just assumed. I notice you've grouped it under "Earlier Semaphore" now; it is mentioned after the Clacks introduction in {{TFE}}, but then it could still easily be older technology. Here's the reference if you want to check: ''Monstrous Regiment, Page 137 (Doubleday UK Hardback)''. [[User:JaffaCakeLover|JaffaCakeLover]] 10:08, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

== A little crossover with Roundworld? ==

While doing a little search about the Clacks on Google, I noticed some entries coming up with "ClacksWeb".
Unfortunately this is not a website dedicated to the workings of the Clacks, as I was hoping to find, but is the website associated with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clackmannanshire Clackmannanshire], Britain's Smallest Historic County, located in Scotland. It is otherwise known as "The Wee County" (which naturally brought Feegles to mind) and is usually abbreviated to simply "Clacks".

You know you've got the Disc on you're mind when you see that county name and automatically read it as "Clacksmanshire", and get little visions of a place, probably up towards the Ramtops or Chalk, where Clacksmen might retire to or take a break from the whistling winds and dizzying heights of the towers. --[[User:GallifreyanWitch|Verity]] ([[User talk:GallifreyanWitch|talk]]) 13:21, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

== Semaphore ==

Is it worth noting that semaphore was around for centuries in Discworld? --[[User:Stevehim|Stevehim]] ([[User talk:Stevehim|talk]]) 07:38, 7 February 2017 (UTC)