The Nineteenth Byte

Beta Decay

20:00

![collection of differently energised photons hitting your retina](link)

trichoplax

![screen reader malfunction. Autodestruct in 10 seconds](image)

3

flawr

trichoplax

Not for me

Geobits

HTML nothing works here AFAIK.

Beta Decay

Nope

Nooope

Geobits

20:02

I'm reminded every time I try to use <s>.

Beta Decay

Haha those damn force of habits

trichoplax

~~<s>does this work?</s>~~

Alex A.

@trichoplax how u do dis

trichoplax

---<s>does this work?</s>---

Alex A.

~~something I shouldn't have said~~ good things

flawr

20:04

wtf tricho

Alex A.

Nice

Geobits

<sup> gets me often enough, too.

Alex A.

@Geobits <sup><bro>

flawr

~~test~~

Geobits

o

trichoplax

20:05

----.----

Alex A.

@flawr You should really join the crew of people with animal avatars. We're a ~~good~~ lively bunch.

flawr

---

So what animal then?

trichoplax

I used to have an animal avatar (kind of)

Alex A.

@trichoplax Which?

Geobits

Civet

trichoplax

20:06

turtle

Alex A.

@flawr Up to you, of course!

trichoplax

(but a logo turtle...)

Alex A.

Oh I remember that. That was back in your githubphagocyte days, right?

Geobits

Ferocious Lion Avatar Would Rock

trichoplax

I might go back to it

@AlexA. yup :)

Or I could go for a trichoplax. Technically an animal

Alex A.

20:07

Better turtle

trichoplax

Um. I reserve judgement

Geobits

Any time I read "Technically an animal", I know the next few minutes of my internet history will be interesting.

Alex A.

Geobits

(except this time, since it's already there from last time)

Alex A.

Trichoplax vs Food

trichoplax

20:08

@AlexA. Gross why?? It must save so much time for every cell of your body to be able to eat independently

Geobits

Except that then each cell can be less specialized?

trichoplax

@Geobits There is that. Actually, as much as I enjoy food, I wouldn't want to give up practically every other ability in order to be able to eat more conveniently

Alex A.

If each one of your cells could taste while eating independently, that would make for a horrible existence.

It'd be like licking everything all the time.

Geobits

I fail to see the downside to that :P

trichoplax

@AlexA. Only if your cells are connected by a central nervous system.

flawr

20:12

how about a decentralized nervous system? like bitcoin?

Alex A.

@trichoplax, I gotta say, you clearly like biology and programming, maybe you should study to be a bioinformatician.

@flawr Now that's a centralized system that makes me nervous.

trichoplax

@AlexA. If I was going to do something productive, I'd be more likely to study artificial life

Alex A.

@trichoplax lol @ "if I was going to do something productive"

Is that because all of your time is spent here?

trichoplax

@flawr Now I'm trying to picture what a creature with a decentralised nervous system would look like when it moved

Maybe different parts of it would become the "head" and make the decisions as different parts develop more hashing power...

Geobits

Like a swarm, if the video on wikipedia is right ;)

trichoplax

20:16

@AlexA. Oh no. As much as I like it here, I'm perfectly capable of being unproductive elsewhere too

@Geobits That's just tantalising - what did you search for? Link?

Geobits

Oh, I meant on the trichoplax page, under locomotion.

trichoplax

Oh right. I guess that's "no nervous system" rather than "decentralised nervous system"

Geobits

But it makes sense to me, drawing on my boids experiences :D

TheNumberOne

@Geobits Socks

trichoplax

I wonder if we could have more swarm/flock based questions without duplication

Geobits

20:19

I think there's a big area for it, just have to come up with something good.

trichoplax

Maybe a heatbugs golf?

flawr

Swarming pineapple pizza.

Alex A.

@flawr Incorrect.

flawr

I actually dreamt of a pineapple pizza challenge

Alex A.

PPCG dreams? Welcome to the point of no return.

flawr

20:21

basically a shape fitting challenge: Find an algorithm that fits as many half pineapple slices onto a round or square pizza.

Geobits

Heatbugs would work. I don't know how to make it interesting/fun as a golf, though.

flawr

It does not have to be golf

What exactly do you mean with heatbugs?

Beta Decay

Hot insects

Geobits

ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/Heatbugs

flawr

@Geobits Thanks!

trichoplax

20:25

Messing around trying to implement heatbugs I once made an error that resulted in them constructing irregular lattice grids. I wish I could remember how

(when I say "constructing", I mean "arranging into")

Alex A.

Better than constructing weapons, dividing into teams, and electing leaders.

trichoplax

That might be better for a KotH though :)

Martin Büttner

I'm starting to perceive a slight gradient in the TLPQ leaderboard :)

(and I just cracked the 5th-to-top cop)

the only reason I figured that out is because I've got this file open in my text editor:

4 void
4 main
4 (int
4 foo)
4 {int
4 bar,
4 baz;
4 char
4 a,b;
4 for(
8 bar=-13;
6 bar<0;
4 --b)
4 {bar
4 +=1;
4 a=b=
4 bar;
4 baz=
4 a+b;
6 baz*=9
4 ;baz
4 *=-1
4 ;-a;
4 putc
4 (baz
4 );a=
4 -1;}
...

however, I'd need to fill in another 85 lines to complete it, so I think I'll scrap that :D

trichoplax

my confusion levels just spiked

Martin Büttner

the answer I cracked was in Wordfuck

the above is my (unfinished) attempt at writing a C/Wordfuck polyglot

trichoplax

20:31

Ah...

Dennis

@MartinBüttner Ouch.

Martin Büttner

yeah exactly :D

the C wasn't even supposed to be doing anything meaningful

trichoplax

How long did it take to get that far...??

Martin Büttner

not too long... maybe half an hour... but it's tiring, and I thought of a more interesting language in the meantime (which I had posted instead)

Dennis

I'm seriously curious how the 3 byte cop works. And secretly hoping that it violates some rule... :P

Martin Büttner

20:36

I was thinking it might be Ismael's language, but it doesn't seem to have a HW built-in

it also uses capital letters for built-ins

Peter Taylor

@AlexA. He enjoys cooking. Every year he threw a party for all his students, and produced some great food. Always including about eight flavours of home-made ice-cream, of which some would be conventional and some less so.

Martin Büttner

@PeterTaylor What I forgot to mention earlier (and I think I said it to Sp or someone): if you're actually concerned about that, post the GolfScript, HQ9+ and Python answers yourself as community wikis.

Peter Taylor

When I went back for a college reunion a couple of years ago I arranged to sit next to him at dinner and we spent most of it talking about molecular gastronomy.

@MartinBüttner Have to be fast enough.

Martin Büttner

@PeterTaylor I'll ping you before posting it :P

Peter Taylor

It's a shame the "Answer your own question" feature only allows one answer.

Dennis

20:41

@MartinBüttner I considered HQ9+B which is Turing-complete(ish), but I can't find an interpreter.

Martin Büttner

heh... I think PPCG might be the only SE where posting several could make sense ;)

@Dennis I think the HQ9+ derivatives all use a lower-case w or something like that.

maybe something related to KEMURI?

Dennis

At least one does it right. I've used it in a challenge.

HQ9+-

Martin Büttner

hm, I'll need to have another look another day. got a 5 hour drive to do tomorrow morning (and potentially the same drive back tomorrow night) :/

Dennis

Ugh.

Some people like driving. I don't.

Optimizer

me neither

it drives me nuts

on the elections post, each answer has -3, except for Dennis, who has -2.

coincidence? I say its not! :P

Dennis

20:51

Haha. It wasn't me.

I say it's "it's". :P

Optimizer

umm, what?

its is totally right

my browser doesnt give a red line below it, so its right

it gave for this ^

trichoplax

If you spell it's "cat", it won't give you a red line either :P

Vioz-

I love driving :D

Optimizer

I do not follow, tricho

Dennis

theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe

2

trichoplax

20:54

@Optimizer Try it for yourself

Optimizer

try what?

trichoplax

Try spelling it "cat"

Optimizer

oh, the red lines? well it knows quotes are ok. but it gives for '

Beta Decay

I hate apostrophe's just because so many people get them so wrong

Like when people say Born in the 1980's

Optimizer

ur so right

Beta Decay

20:55

i no rite

Ugh, Web Comics isn't gonna make it to the commit stage is it? :P

trichoplax

Not without about a hundred new followers in the next week... :(

Beta Decay

Or just a whole load of upvotes from random people

And I highly doubt there are enough Welsh people on Area 51

trichoplax

40 questions with a score of 10 or more requires at least 80 voters, and more if some questions have more than 10 votes (or if some have downvotes)

@BetaDecay Even fewer Welsh speakers or learners (most people in Wales can't speak Welsh)

Why on Earth is that starred??

lol

Beta Decay

Haha because it's true about non Welsh speaking Welsh people ;)

trichoplax

Well it's OK for you to star it :)

Beta Decay

21:05

:D

trichoplax

I wonder how many followers "Stack Overflow in Welsh" would get

Beta Decay

@TreFox Your avatar is awesome! I'm gonna take a wild guess at the Helix Nebula

"Stack Overflow in Klingon"

Brb

TreFox

@BetaDecay Thanks! You guessed right :D

Beta Decay

21:25

Yay! I love astronomy :D

Stack Overflow in Klingon is now a thing

Only a matter of time before Robert Cartaino stamps on my dreams ;)

Geobits

Hmm. I can't figure out how to downvote a proposal, but I just don't know what else to do with it.

Beta Decay

You could always follow and add five example questions ;)

Geobits

I don't know Klingon, so that doesn't seem appropriate.

Beta Decay

I don't know enough Klingon either

Geobits

Then, umm...

Beta Decay

21:38

Do you think Var'aQ questions in English would be on topic? :P

Geobits

No :D

Beta Decay

Haha maybe it'll get more attention in the Pod Bay :D

*Mos Eisley

Gah, I may be hypocritical, but those people are absolute nerds... :O

> Unfortunately, we are not currently accepting proposals in imaginary, non-English languages — See Internationalization 'State of the Stack'

Doorknob

23:00

Are we counting downvotes on the psuedo-"election" voting thread, or are we only considering the upvote count? /cc @MartinBüttner

Not that it would matter much at the moment, because everyone has three downvotes (except for Dennis, who has 2).

trichoplax

I don't imagine anyone has good reason to downvote in this particular election, but in general someone might want to downvote for a reason they don't feel comfortable voicing, so I like the idea of downvotes counting.

There is the problem of candidates having the potential to downvote everyone else and upvote themselves, but this only puts them 2 votes up which shouldn't matter unless an election is very close.

It only seems to be a minor disadvantage to candidates who are too noble to upvote themselves or downvote others

Since there are a lot more voters than candidates, it seems worth allowing the downvotes of the candidates in order to get the meaningful downvotes from the wider population of voters

I wish political elections had downvotes...

PhiNotPi

23:23

@Doorknob If you want me to downvote Dennis and even things out, I can. :)

Dennis

:(

FWIW, the "normal" SE elections count downvotes.

trichoplax

@Dennis Don't they just have 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice per candidate?

My ideal election would have all the way down to nth place if there are n candidates

Dennis

@trichoplax In the final phase, yes. The primaries have up/downvotes.

trichoplax

@Dennis Are the primaries the equivalent of our nomination phase?

Dennis

More or less. The nomination phase has no votes at all. The primaries has up/downvotes and only the highest N candidates move on to the next phase. Finally the winner(s) are selected as you said.

New Main Posts

23:37

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TheNumberOne

@AlexA. For my proposal in the sandbox, should I change the name to Rational Zeroes; or Rational Roots of Polynomials. (Or do you have another, more exciting idea, for a name?)

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