Now that I think of it, an integer underflow seems like a real likelihood – before the wish is granted, there’s a check that wish_count is greater than zero, and after it’s granted, it is decremented by one.  If wish_count is stored as an unsigned 32-bit integer, and you can set it to zero between the check and the decrement, then after the whole operation, wish_count = 0 – 1 = 4,294,967,296.

Oooh, that explains where I’ve been going wrong then.

“Ooh, another one. Uh … the ability to alter any coefficients of friction at will during sporting events.”

PS: how can you not know about eyelash wishes? Though in Australia we do the lazy version where you can earn a wish for someone else and skip the whole not-looking step.

I was also wondering what on earth eyelash wishing was, but apparently not enough to Google it. Thanks for asking, Clifton! :)

1) Someone has to tell you that you have an eyelash on your face.
2) You must remove it with your fingertip without looking in the mirror.
3) Make a wish.
4) Blow the eyelash off the end of your finger.
5) Profit!!!

Pull them out, or blink them, or get them stuck in your eye, or what? 

Well, I guess it’s off to the meth lab with me!

I can’t wait.

Jumper is one of my most loved books (and I agree with Cory Doctorow on the movie.

“Hmm…maybe we can say that from now on NO means YES…so everyone who votes AGAINST us is really voting FOR us…yeah!” “But sir – what if they call Opposite Day?” “DAMMIT”

Another novel of Gould’s, Wildside, I liked even better. It’s a gateway-to-a-parallel-earth-without-humans story.

It reminded me of Stephen Gould’s excellent YA novel Jumper, which rigorously and thoroughly maps out the possibilities of teleportation (which was adapted into a movie that, unfortunately, omitted most of its charm).

Y’know, the novel is excellent and brimming with charm, but I thought what makes it so excellent is that it isn’t rigorous and thorough.  Or at least, it isn’t rigorous and thorough like some other YA novels along those lines (Bruce Coville’s stuff comes to mind), which get so caught up in hashing out what can or can’t be done that somehow the story gets lost along the way.  The greatness of “Jumper” lies in that the teleportation is in some ways incidental to the story of a young man coming to grips with his abusive childhood.  (It reminded me a little of Robert “The Chocolate War” Corimer’s novel “Fade”, which deals with invisibility and is unfortunately much more sensationalist.)  Anyway, Gould’s other books about Jumping, “Reflex” and “Jumper: Griffin’s Story” are also rather nice, though “Reflex” starts to fall into the overly-hashing trap.

The good Mr. LessWrong (of “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” fame) has a rather splendid article on wish-hacking here, including a link to The Open Source Wish Project.  Bookmark it in case you ever happen to meet a genie.