The Nineteenth Byte

The Interview: The Front Nine This is the first of a series of challenges inspired by programming job interview questions. You walk into the office where your potential future boss sits. "Come on in and sit down", he says. You nervously sit down, making sure your snappy yet professional attire ...

Alex A.

@Optimizer Done

@Mego status-declined

Optimizer

Lies!, its still the same!

Alex A.

Sounds like your problem, not mine.

Anonymous

7:23 PM

Quick, everybody change your avatars and ask Alex to refresh them, to distract him from being wrong!

Anonymous

Anonymous

looksthesame.jpg

Optimizer

coz Alex won't refresh

we'll have to wait it out

Alex A.

@Mego ಠ_ಠ

@Optimizer I already did refresh yours

Anonymous

That's your PPCG profile though

Anonymous

7:25 PM

Not your chat profile

Anonymous

The change didn't go through

Optimizer

@AlexA. wait, you actually did?

Alex A.

Yeah, when I said "done," I meant that I had refreshed your profile.

Anonymous

@AlexA. ಠ___________________ಠ

Optimizer

I thought u were just playing along :P

Alex A.

7:26 PM

Nope

5 mins ago, by Mego

alex-is-nice

Anonymous

@AlexA. alex-is-mean

2

Optimizer

alex-gets-fooled-easily

Anonymous

we-wont-get-fooled-again

Alex A.

tag-syntax-does-not-support-apostrophes

VoteToClose

@AlexA. status-deferred

Anonymous

7:27 PM

@VoteToClose status-hello

Alex A.

@VoteToClose Do you by chance mean "deferred"?

VoteToClose

I can't spell. -.-

Anonymous

@VoteToClose Happens to the beast of us

muddyfish

@Mego in task 8, for the first example, shouldn't you need 3 quarters to make up 75 pennies?

Optimizer

@Mego you mean "bust"?

or "breast"?

Anonymous

7:29 PM

@muddyfish whatareyoutalkingaboutthatwasa3allalong

Alex A.

> Happens to the breast of us

Anonymous

shifty eyes

Optimizer

you mean "shitty"?

muddyfish

sure

Anonymous

I should not write specs at the second 2 am

Alex A.

7:31 PM

@Optimizer Would "shitty eyes" be like you need glasses?

VoteToClose

No - eyes of shit.

Peter Taylor

@AlexA. Yes, but the input is a pain in the arse.

VoteToClose

status-out-of-context

Anonymous

@VoteToClose Normally I'd try to find a funny gif but no

VoteToClose

Optimizer

7:32 PM

wow, google is giving fairly clean results to "shitty eyes"

VoteToClose

Close enough.

Alex A.

@PeterTaylor Oh really? I wouldn't have guessed. But I assume you can't check primality, right?

Optimizer

@PeterTaylor oh you have prime example?

Peter Taylor

@AlexA. It's TC. github.com/elitheeli/stupid-machines

@Optimizer, I've never tried implementing anything in it myself.

Alex A.

@PeterTaylor WHAT??

So HTML+CSS is a programming language?

Optimizer

7:36 PM

wait, rule 110 over rules addition and prime?

searches for rule 110

Peter Taylor

@AlexA. Yes. It's amazing how simple a computational system has to be to be TC, and CSS is anything but simple.

Optimizer

so I thought TC was not the criteria for our "programming language" defintion

Alex A.

It isn't

But a TC language will meet our requirements

Anonymous

@Optimizer Our criteria is softer than TC. If a language is TC, it meets our reqs.

Alex A.

Samurai'd you right in the heart

Optimizer

7:39 PM

I still don't see Prime tester in CSS though..

by see, I mean, don't see it happening...

Anonymous

It's TC, so it can solve any computable problem.

Anonymous

Determining whether an integer is prime is a computable problem.

Optimizer

ok, so in theory, HTML+CSS is a valid programming language as per our rules.

Alex A.

CSS itself isn't; it's HTML+CSS that is, right?

Optimizer

yes

CSS it itself is useless

CSS applies to HTML

Alex A.

7:49 PM

And HTML alone isn't TC either though, right?

Lembik

who knew Objective-C++ would win the longest shortest code competition! codegolf.stackexchange.com/a/62581/9206

at least so far

Optimizer

@AlexA. yes

its like pure bread and pure peanut butter.

combine them and voila!

Alex A.

Both of those are awesome on their own though.

Optimizer

plain bread is awesome?

Sure, if you are dying of hunger and its raining, but otherwise, nah

Alex A.

Why does it have to be raining?

Optimizer

7:53 PM

also, someone has to throw the bread halfway towards you

Anonymous

"Oh, you orphans are hungry? Want some bread?"

Mauris

Hey, multigrain bread is neat on its own.

Alex A.

^

Calvin's Hobbies

Or cinnamon swirl

Anonymous

carrot.bread

Optimizer

7:54 PM

@Mauris so is Jekyll

Anonymous

@AlexA. Watch Aladdin again

Optimizer

Srsly? It was a Hunger Games reference :|

Anonymous

It was an Aladdin reference before it was a Hunger Games reference

Optimizer

rain+bread+throwing = hunger games first

Alex A.

@Mego No thanks

Anonymous

7:56 PM

I guess maybe not the rain

Alex A.

@Optimizer I haven't seen that either

Optimizer

oh, such are twilight fans..

Alex A.

Haven't seen that either

Optimizer

lies

all lies

Alex A.

I've seen Aladdin but it's been about 20 years

Anonymous

7:56 PM

How does Twilight have anything to do with this?

Alex A.

The blue guy in Aladdin was a vampire

Anonymous

@AlexA. It's one of my nephew's favorite movies, so it's been about 20 minutes

Optimizer

He was blue due to the lack of blood, so he became a vampire

it did not help though

Alex A.

haha

Anonymous

da ba dee da ba die

Optimizer

7:57 PM

"die"

Alex A.

@Mego Do you live with your nephew?

Anonymous

@AlexA. No, but he visits often

Alex A.

OIC

Anonymous

He was over last night because both my sister and BIL were working

Alex A.

Bill?

Anonymous

7:59 PM

Brother in law

Optimizer

brother in law

Anonymous

THE SCIENCE GUY

Alex A.

Brother in law

Optimizer

the science guy?

Alex A.

I assumed that's what BIL was.

Anonymous

7:59 PM

bill bill bill bill

Alex A.

BILTSG

Calvin's Hobbies

@Optimizer Bill Nye

Anonymous

THE SCIENCE GUY

Alex A.

BILL BILL BILL BILL

Optimizer

TSG TSG TSG

Alex A.

8:00 PM

Inertia is a property of matter

Anonymous

No it's not Bill learn general relativity

Optimizer

matter is property of time

Anonymous

Inertia is a result of an accelerated reference frame

Alex A.

@Mego That's in the theme song

Anonymous

@AlexA. I know :P It's funny to look back and see how much stuff he taught is wrong in SR/GR

Optimizer

8:01 PM

"It's just a matter of time"

Alex A.

SR/GR?

Anonymous

"Everything is matter! Except energy!"

Anonymous

Special Relativity/General Relativity

Alex A.

Ah, okay

Anonymous

Matter and energy are exactly the same thing

Anonymous

8:02 PM

Just different ways of looking at it

Alex A.

Because e=mc^2

Anonymous

No, because E^2 = (mc^2)^2+(pc)^2

Alex A.

Why isn't E=mc^2 sufficient in this case?

Optimizer

what does personal computer have to do with matter?

Anonymous

@AlexA. Because it's only part of the equation; it leaves out light

Anonymous

8:04 PM

Light has energy, and so it acts like it has mass too, like being affected by gravity

Alex A.

So what's p in this equation?

Anonymous

Momentum

Alex A.

If E=mc^2 and you plug that into E in your equation, you get (mc^2)^2 = (mc^2)^2 + (pc)^2, which means (pc)^2 = 0.

Calvin's Hobbies

@Optimizer Envy = (mac^2)^2+(pc)^2

Anonymous

E=mc^2 is an approximation of the full formula, used for stuff where the momentum is negligible

Alex A.

8:07 PM

Oh, okay

I forgot that physicists use = even when things aren't exactly equal, like for approximations.

VoteToClose

Oh my gosh, I just wasted 10 minutes on a question that I misread.

Alex A.

I had a boss that wrote = rather than the symbol for "proportial to." Drove me nuts.

feersum

Only 10? You were fortunate.

Alex A.

^

@Calvin'sHobbies Linux envy

Anonymous

If you have a non-accelerating mass, and you want to know how much energy it has in its reference frame, you use E=mc^2, where m is its rest mass (mass in its reference frame)

VoteToClose

8:09 PM

I made a Vitsy code that was 2194 bytes. XD

Anonymous

@VoteToClose I've written shorter VB.NET code

Alex A.

@Mego Because its momentum is 0 in that reference frame?

VoteToClose

Yeah - I thought it was writing "Hello, world!" with only 4 characters, but I misread. :c

Anonymous

@AlexA. It's very close to zero (you still have to account for angular momentum). But in most macro cases you can pretend it's zero and the numbers are still mostly right.

Alex A.

> still mostly right

ಠ_ಠ

Physics

Anonymous

8:11 PM

If you want to use that formula and have it be exactly right, you have to state things very carefully

Calvin's Hobbies

E=M is close enough

Alex A.

Usually in the morning my E=0.

Anonymous

Let's say you have an electron and a positron. You want to know how much energy will be produced by their annihilation, discounting the energy provided by their motion. E=mc^2 will give you that answer, where m = 2*(mass of electron).

Anonymous

@Calvin'sHobbies In natural units, sure

Calvin's Hobbies

Why does hitting back on a webpage sometimes take longer than reentering the url and loading it afresh :/

Anonymous

8:13 PM

@Calvin'sHobbies Because HTML+CSS is TC

VoteToClose

8:23 PM

Wow. I'm gaining rep quick. o-o

Anonymous

@VoteToClose I wish I was gaining feedback quick

VoteToClose

For what?

Anonymous

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

The Interview: The Front Nine This is the first of a series of challenges inspired by programming job interview questions. You walk into the office where your potential future boss sits. "Come on in and sit down", he says. You nervously sit down, making sure your snappy yet professional attire ...

Alex A.

Best to leave things in the sandbox for several days

Optimizer

months*

Also, One Punch Man is awesome!

Alex A.

8:27 PM

@Optimizer My girlfriend has been watching that. I saw the first couple episodes.

Optimizer

your gf is into animes? Now that is awesome!

muddyfish

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

How am I doing? popularity-contestascii-art My boss is a flashy sort of fellow. He likes all things animated. He's asked me to write a progress bar to show the completeness of our super-secret project. Now with me being me, I'm getting you to write this for me and showing the best one to my b...

thoughts?

Alex A.

@Optimizer She grew up watching anime. Doesn't as much anymore but she enjoys a few still, like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Kill la Kill, and One Punch Man.

Optimizer

those are some weird ones :D. What do you mean grew up?

Alex A.

Like she spent many years as a kid watching various animes.

Yeah, Jojo especially is quite weird.

New Sandboxed Posts

8:33 PM

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

How am I doing? popularity-contestascii-art My boss is a flashy sort of fellow. He likes all things animated. He's asked me to write a progress bar to show the completeness of our super-secret project. Now with me being me, I'm getting you to write this for me and showing the best one to my b...

Optimizer

@AlexA. I am not sure animes were popular at all in the west when we were children

except for a few dragon ball kinds

Alex A.

She liked Sailor Moon, which regularly aired on TV here, and Excel Saga, among others. I have no idea where she found that one but she has them on DVD.

Optimizer

nice

feersum

imagines anime about epic spreadsheet data entry task

Alex A.

hahahhahaha

Optimizer

8:38 PM

@feersum you might wanna pitch that one, it might go through

Alex A.

@Optimizer I think she pretty much liked any anime she could find. She also learned Japanese in high school and whenever we watch things in Japanese with English subtitles, she'll occasionally say, "That actually translates more like [whatever]."

I also learned Japanese in high school but I only studied it for two years. She did four.

Doorknob

@feersum And as the light from the screen shone out into the dark room, casting ominous shadows across his face, the muscles in his finger moved... the Tab key was slowly depressed... and the data spread gloriously before his eyes, and it was beautiful.

Optimizer

@AlexA. man I'm jealous

Alex A.

Of what?

Optimizer

of you :P

Alex A.

8:40 PM

haha

She's pretty great. <3

Anonymous

She sounds like a keeper

Alex A.

Definitely. Martin used one of her paintings in an image processing challenge here.

Anonymous

Now the question is, how does she feel about dating someone who is always wrong?

Alex A.

I think she's used to it by now.

Anonymous

...actually from a female perspective all guys are wrong, so I guess it wouldn't change anything

Alex A.

8:44 PM

Besides, it means she always gets to be right. :P

Anonymous

Don't golf your love letters

VoteToClose

men-are-wrong

therefore-men-are-alex?

@Mego Done it. >.>

Anonymous

@VoteToClose Sorry about being single

Alex A.

@VoteToClose alex-is-man...

VoteToClose

@Mego Who said I was? >.>

Anonymous

8:46 PM

@VoteToClose You, when you said you golfed a love letter :P

VoteToClose

shrug

Alex A.

Perhaps his significant other appreciates unreadability.

Anonymous

You golf a love letter, she bowls the breakup

VoteToClose

@AlexA. ahem Who said I was male? O.o

Anonymous

@VoteToClose Pretty sure you did, at least a few times

Anonymous

8:48 PM

Or rather, this is the first time I've seen you object to being called male

Alex A.

@VoteToClose Oh sorry! I just generally assume that this site is a gigantic sausage festival.

2

VoteToClose

>.> Who said I wasn't male?

Optimizer

mail can surely not type

Anonymous

@VoteToClose Are you mail or email?

VoteToClose

-.-

Dammit.

Alex A.

8:49 PM

He's UPS.

Anonymous

@AlexA. UPS is better than FEDEX I suppose

VoteToClose

Uninterruptible power source?

Anonymous

United Parcel Service

Optimizer

@AlexA. anti geobits

Anonymous

There, joking about Fedex is PC

Anonymous

8:51 PM

Because they're so awful

feersum

:25094904 That's not how you do it. You wait for someone else to say it was Down's Syndrome, decry their insensitivity, and then claim it stood for something else.

Optimizer

@Mego that's a mac though

2

Anonymous

Once you see it, you can't help seeing it every time. Until your body finishes metabolizing the mushrooms.

VoteToClose

@AlexA. I'm a guy, don't worry. :P That was just a comment for the interwebs.

Doorknob

@Mego xkcd oneboxes

Alex A.

8:53 PM

@VoteToClose I wasn't worried, I just shouldn't have assumed.

But singular "they" pains me.

VoteToClose

Optimizer

they is correct

feersum

It's painful when referring to a specific person.

Alex A.

^

Anonymous

So VTC

Anonymous

8:54 PM

I realized something

Optimizer

Guess the person - They is wrong

Doorknob

@Optimizer according to some people

VoteToClose

What's that?

Doorknob

but not always

Alex A.

some people

Anonymous

8:54 PM

You're basically the flipside of one of my best friends from college

Alex A.

VoteToReopen?

VoteToClose

@AlexA. For your knowledge, if you want it.

Anonymous

He was born in the UK but his family moved to Texas when he was young

VoteToClose

@Mego ?

Anonymous

Meanwhile your family is from Texas but living in the UK

VoteToClose

8:56 PM

Ah. I see. :P

4

A: Generate 0 or 1

AppleScript/osascript, 17 Bytes some item of{1,0} This is kinda the cheaty way to do it. some item will grab a random item of a list. If I wanted a random item of a series, I would use: random number from 0 to 100 For a random integer in the set [0, 100].