The Nineteenth Byte

lyxal

00:45

after one attempt

thanks Mongo

nvm the fact I need to access my databases and collections

Seggan

01:22

@rydwolf same story here lol

i dont feel like doxxing myself tho today

lyxal

I was influenced the other way by reddit

To not join Instagram

And to instead view it as the platform of normies :p

Unrelated String

xd

lyxal

Where stolen memes are reposted :p

Unrelated String

Honestly that might be part of why I never had any interest in checking it out

But for the most part I just hate the premise of a platform that's completely image-and-video-oriented

Let me read damn it

Seggan

to me its just a place where i can gossip with my third cousins once removed

Unrelated String

01:26

And I'm still baffled by people using it as a chat platform instead somehow :P

...I need to get back on the genealogy grind to figure out if I even have any third cousins once removed

I probably do on my mom's side but I actually know nothing about her mom's family

Seggan

i dont know any third cousins any removed lol

lyxal

@rydwolf for a moment I thought your chat bio said the cat's name was "puppy" instead of poppy

Seggan

i was just making a point

Unrelated String

Sad

lyxal

I know the removed term in family trees refers to generation gaps, but I like to think of it as a suspension counter

Like "cousin once removed" is someone who was banned from being a cousin for like 7 days

5

"my second cousin 5 times removed is the life of the party, but do keep in mind he generates a lot of chat flags in the family group chat"

3

Thomas Ward

01:36

@lyxal stupid question, but direct connection or reverse-proxied?

because if its reverse proxied it might've been blown to bits by incorrect source/real IP

unrelated. waves

lyxal

@ThomasWard direct connection (viewing the website in my browser)

@ThomasWard uh oh chq containment breached :p

Unrelated String

@ThomasWard thomas. waves

Thomas Ward

WARNING: THE CHAOS HAS BREACHED THE CHQ CONTAINMENT FIELD. RUN BEFORE IT SPREADS FURTHER.

5

:P

lyxal

It's too late, the room's already filling with smoke :p

@ThomasWard it worked as normal about a minute later

So no clue what happened there

Thomas Ward

@lyxal i hope its not open to the net because that means you had people trying to bruteforce

at least it worked a minute later

lyxal

01:44

This was the mongodb cloud dashboard btw

I was trying to sign into my altas account

Thomas Ward

ah the cloud

that means the cloud is weird

att

@UnrelatedString yeah i always thought it was for sharing photos and stuff before i realized it was the fb replacement

Bbrk24

02:03

It’s also full of reposted TikToks nowadays

Ginger

02:19

five websites with the same content

Sandbox Posts

04:23

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

Note: this is similar to Interpret PlusOrMinus, but they aren't the same PlusIntMinus is an esoteric programming language invented by Esolang user PythonshellDebugwindow. Language specification There is a wrapping byte accumulator (incrementing 255 results in 0 and decrementing 0 results in 255) ...

user

05:37

@user Wait I made this exact same joke a year earlier, when Bbrk couldn't see my pronouns

Mar 31, 2023 at 1:38, by user

@Bbrk24 Because my pronouns are "/". Do not refer to me.

@Bbrk24 Did the script stop working for you for a whole year or did it start working again and it just broke recently again?

mousetail

@att Bracket indicates the behavior of the next ]

lyxal

I sure love wondering why a value is undefined despite the fact it really shouldn't be, only to realise I didn't await a Promise

mousetail

That's why you use typescrpit so it will warn you about those things

att

06:12

no i was questioning the spelling

mousetail

06:29

Oops

192927376337929292283737373773

@lyxal this is gold

rydwolf

10:20

@UnrelatedString Whenever I want to write stuff I just post it over a picture of my cat

Bbrk24

14:16

@user I didn’t use se chat very much for two consecutive semesters so

Actually if you scroll down just a little there’s another message where I say it’s working again

lyxal

not very stealthy then now is it.

The Empty String Photographer

Yeah exactly

except not even a pro GeoGuessr player could guess where that is

rydwolf

14:46

@lyxal I'm gonna have so much fun once the Air Force makes me wear a uniform to class every Thursday, pretending like people can't see me 'cause I'm in camo

lyxal

well just make sure you're seen if there's any roll call

last thing you need is to fail successfully

rydwolf

Oh don't worry, they can still hear me, the sound just comes from a seemingly empty chair

Unrelated String

15:09

@rydwolf lol

...the hell happened on the starboard

@rydwolf ~~You can also make a habit of claiming anything you wear to class is the Air Force's fault~~

rydwolf

I just misread "hiker found dead in Grand Canyon" as "Hitler found dead in Grand Canyon" that was quite the double take

Unrelated String

pfffffffff

Unrelated String

15:49

...This does remind me, it's been kinda getting to me all of a sudden that I'm going to have a very short window for actually having occasions to wear casual clothes that I'd enjoy

rydwolf

Wdym?

rydwolf

16:08

nytimes.com/2024/08/30/realestate/…

What the hell

I swear rich people are like a whole different species

Like you hit seven figures and the mold in your brain just takes over

user

lmao

@rydwolf I mean it's not mold, they (their parents) really can afford it

But why live in a college dorm at that point then? Why not live in posh off-campus housing?

rydwolf

The last paragraphs are what really has me concerned

user

@Bbrk24 Yes but there's another message that says it doesn't work after I leave the room

Unrelated String

@user The thing that shocked me most was that level of control over a dorm even being possible, but then I remembered, housing is not going to throw a fit over someone who's going to be throwing them hundreds of thousands of dollars in endowment funds a couple decades down the line

user

Yeah I assume these are rich-kid dorms at rich-kid colleges anyway

rydwolf

16:13

Like it talks about "some students" "DIYing it" as if it's this bizarre archaic concept then go on to describe what literally everyone who isn't the helicoptered infant of some old money pervert does

If I wasn't vegetarian I'd be eating the rich

user

Over here, at least, we have normal dorms with communal bathrooms and often no A/C where this would absolutely be neither allowed nor feasible (barely enough space to move around in), but there's also swankier suites and stuff meant for rich kids where they probably do stuff like this

Unrelated String

I think that was just a really awkward attempt to segue by the author

user

@rydwolf These kids seem to just be spoiled and ignorant

Eat their parents

Unrelated String

"I want to call out that you don't need thousands of dollars to throw away to make a dorm feel yours, but I also can't be caught actually ridiculing the main subject of the article"

And just kinda spun a bit too far the other way

user

> “He wanted to have living walls, water features, everything,” Ms. Huston said. “After a lot of meetings, sharing ideas and setting expectations, we agreed on a gorgeous plan: We added some plants, a breathtaking mural and a funky hanging chair.”

wtf

rydwolf

16:17

Like I understand spending money to make the place you live somewhere you can feel happy and safe and proud of. I spent (shudders) $450 on curtains once. But as someone who's only barely still sane after figuring out how to not get thrown out of college for having no money, this stuff makes me irrationally angry

Unrelated String

@user It seems like this is mostly at Ole Miss, which from what I've heard from someone who got stuck going there, is sort of a "party school" and all-around disaster

user

@rydwolf Yeah, but it's not these kids you should be angry at, they're just idiots. It's the government's fault for not taxing the rich more and increasing the minimum wage and rich people's fault for making sure to get favorable laws passed that help them

rydwolf

Well yeah it's the parents and institutions I'm mad at

user

@UnrelatedString I love that college was supposed to be a place where you get educated but for a lot of people it's just a way to make sure they don't end up making the minimum wage and then for these guys it's just a fun place to be at

Unrelated String

yeppppp

And it feels like the growing necessity of degrees for solid jobs has also degraded the ability of colleges to even function as educational institutions, because it turns into a game of student versus administration to minimize effort versus make sure graduates don't actively embarrass them

So it becomes necessary for students to buy into gaming it because the university has to compensate for that

user

16:27

Oh god the grade inflation

Like I love it, I'm only here for a piece of paper but I'm not learning anything

Okay the salary guide for my university won't load for some reason but I looked at it a year ago and the highest paid people were the president and football coaches, who were paid like 7 figures or something

That is just insane

Unrelated String

lol

rydwolf

What if instead of everyone paying tuition they just choose one student at random to pay everyone's tuition

user

And I guess it hasn't been until recently that college athletes could even profit off of themselves, just their universities, so that really shows you how much universities care about helping out their students

Unrelated String

Yeppp

@rydwolf ...That's actually such a funny scenario to imagine

user

@rydwolf Like Omelas but one kid goes into crushing debt?

Unrelated String

16:32

Like in the first place it probably makes a lot of difference if said student has to pay everyone's tuition or else nobody gets to enroll, or if they can selectively pay individuals' tuition

user

Bartender! A round of degrees for everyone, on me!

Unrelated String

But in either case there could end up being some really crazy gambles and/or power plays in trying to make people give them money to pay with

user

Yeah that's not really a good long-term solution

192927376337929292283737373773

Hello again.

user

Companies shouldn't require degrees for jobs that don't require it and secondary education should be free anyway

Unrelated String

16:34

Real

Bbrk24

secondary education is free right?

that’s just high school

Unrelated String

I feel like liberal arts education would be a lot better at doing its job if it had perpendicular incentives for people actually going through it

user

Oh wait I'm dumb

Tertiary then

I thought HS was still primary

Unrelated String

Apparently middle school is also considered part of secondary

Bbrk24

@user “post-secondary” is the term I’ve usually heard

192927376337929292283737373773

16:35

I have a great idea.

Unrelated String

@user I think it's usually called post-secondary :P

user

Ah

192927376337929292283737373773

I have to take "cousins removed and chat flags" as a writing prompt.

Unrelated String

Probably because there's no real "sequence" after leaving k-12 when you take into account things like trade schools or the multiple routes through grad school

And also probably because it's HISTORICALLY been seen as optional

192927376337929292283737373773

A middle school is post-secondary?

Isn't it for people from 9-13?

Bbrk24

16:38

no no

college is post-secondary

192927376337929292283737373773

So middle school is secondary?

Doesn't elementary make more sense though?

Dannyu NDos

Elementary school, middle school, high school, and then univ — That's how they're called here.

Unrelated String

...what would be primary...?

Elementary school as definitionally primary is like kind of the entire idea here

Dannyu NDos

I mean, in Korean.

Unrelated String

16:54

I was replying to [number]

Ginger

The User Formerly Known As TheAH

Unrelated String

ah :P

192927376337929292283737373773

@Ginger Yes.

You can also use 19²⁹.

Alright I need to make a user script for this.

Unrelated String

@rydwolf I genuinely can't think of anything in my future adult life that would give me an excuse to go more casual than business-casual more often than like twice a month, after I graduate and start having a job instead of just going to lectures a couple days a week

192927376337929292283737373773

Though I have zero idea about coding a user script.

Fantastic.

Unrelated String

17:05

And I'm probably graduating in like 2 years

And it'll probably be at least 1 year before I can actually pull off fem casual

rydwolf

ohh, yeah, I guess. Although idk, the only office-type workplace I've been in, everyone just kinda showed up as they were

(that being Dell)

Unrelated String

Oh nice

Yeah I guess I have heard tech can be pretty lax about that

rydwolf

Unless you're in a particularly stuffy or client-facing field/company, I feel like business casual is kind of an outdated standard

Unrelated String

Feel like there's almost no way I'd manage to land a job at a tech company, so I'm sorta aiming to end up in some weird niche role doing in house software for a company that by and large does other stuff, but if the internal department for that still "is a tech workplace" then there is hope yet :P

mousetail

I wonder why you'd ever want to reverse a string in practical programing.

rydwolf

17:14

@mousetail I've had that exact discussion before once lol

192927376337929292283737373773

CMC: Turn any special URL code (%...) into it's actual character equivalent.

rydwolf

(I was arguing for a String::reverse method to be added to JavaScript)

I've needed it a fair number of times, typically for situations where you're using a string to encode some sort of data

mousetail

I wonder if it's possible for a UTF-8 encoded string containing only multi-byte characters to contain a sub-string that when reversed is valid UTF-8

rydwolf

My proposal got shot down due to the ambiguity in what you'd split on when reversing

192927376337929292283737373773

Such as %20 -> space ( ).

mousetail

17:15

Assume it would need to all be two-byte chars so you can alternate the first/second byte characters

rydwolf

Wouldn't three/four byte ones work too?

Everything past the first byte is the same continuation byte format right

192927376337929292283737373773

@mousetail I have had to many times.

Although I cannot remember the reasons.

mousetail

No, the byte indicates if they are first, second, or third in a char. So if you reverse them you'd have a second byte after a third

rydwolf

Wait really?

That's not what this seems to show

mousetail

Right, I was mistaken

They would all need to be the same length though

rydwolf

17:18

yeah

I think as long as they were the same length they would almost always be valid though

As long as you cut off the first and last few bytes

mousetail

Yea

Probably 3 or 4 bytes obfuscates the letters more. If you do two bytes and the source contains two of the same char in a row one will appear in the output

hyper-neutrino

@UnrelatedString fair enough, i mean you could always wear casual stuff outside of work though lol

i'm lucky enough to be able to just wear basically whatever the fuck i want cuz tech company things

Unrelated String

Yeah

Just makes it harder to justify actually buying

hyper-neutrino

fair enough

Unrelated String

And it kinda takes the fun out of it if nobody else actually sees it

hyper-neutrino

17:26

@hyper-neutrino though i eventually want to find a way to sustainably be self-employed cuz working in a structured corporation hasn't really been enjoyable or fulfilling and i don't think my brain is equipped for it :p

@UnrelatedString yeah good point

Unrelated String

🫂

Yeah I can see how that might be the case

rydwolf

online applications for jobs and scholarships and stuff are such a nightmare

"enter your gpa" (am a week into college)
"enter your extracurricular activites" (bizarre list you have to choose from)
"what EXACT day did you start/end high school/college/your job"

mousetail

I feel I've basically tried every type of employment and none really work for me

rydwolf

ooh and then all these things make you give them a single resume/cover letter as part of your profile so you can't tailor it per-job

Unrelated String

17:43

Damn

So they force you to go through centralized platforms to apply...?

You'd think they'd like to, like... not do that

Since it literally makes it easier for you to apply to other jobs that you might end up taking despite being a candidate they'd like to have available

But I guess they also just save their own effort by not building infrastructure for it internally, and not getting tailored resumes is also a plus for them I guess

user

@UnrelatedString Wait why not? Assuming you want to go into tech, you should totally be able to do that, you're good at programming

Judging from your golfing

@rydwolf I just guesstimate for these, I doubt they check anyway

rydwolf

yeah the only thing that makes me nervous about doing that is this is for the NSA 💀

user

Ah

mfs rejected me once for being from India lol

(in their defense, I submitted my application like the day before it was due, so they didn't have enough time to run my background check, and it would have taken extra long for me due to being Indian and having relatives there)

rydwolf

I do kind of wonder how necessary it is to actually fill all this stuff in

Like I'd assume given that it's the NSA I could just check a little box that says "apply" and they'd already know everything else

user

There's no way know everything (or at least, it'd be easier for you to fill it in than for them to pull that information for all their applicants from various sources)

rydwolf

17:55

~~mmm idk, I'm probably on a lot of lists~~

user

Well I assume Bob from HR won't have access to your personal info anyway, it'd be Eve from the privacy inasion department

rydwolf

yeah yeah :p

user

Ooh, what if Bob from HR goes rogue and starts exclusively hiring people who are secretly foreign agents or are susceptible to being turned

Eventually Bob from HR secretly controls all of the NSA from the shadows

rydwolf

""if magnetism was sharply directional (i.e. a little searchlight of attraction coming out from the tip of the magnet) then this device would work."" This is nonsense! Ever heard of first law of thermodynamics? -1 — Georg Feb 1, 2011 at 16:32

we found him

thermodynamics georg

Unrelated String

@user I'm just terrible at literally everything else that goes with jobs in tech

Like working with other people's decisions

Dannyu NDos

18:06

@rydwolf Isn't it fascinating that this whole study of heat is also about informations? ;)

Unrelated String

Or wanting money

@rydwolf It's like one of those frivolous interview questions like "what's your favorite drink"--it's a personality test in disguise :P

rydwolf

Ah shit, is that why they ask that? I've been answering "the blood of my competitors"

Unrelated String

I think that is the answer they're looking for, in all fairness

rydwolf

yeah but the direct and prolonged eye contact that follows it is probably what loses me the job

Bbrk24

@UnrelatedString my employer later said that by the time they ask that question they’ve already decided they want to hire you

rydwolf

18:17

my darling dearest nsa

Unrelated String

@Bbrk24 Damn

@user Pithy ironic rebuttal aside, I just CANNOT keep up with the other people who are after jobs in tech

Even if I might be better at the actual job than most of them would be, there's no way to tell before hiring me

Every conceivable proxy for that is something they outperform me in by miles

So I'm banking on finding something relatively obscure that pays relatively poorly

And just being the most qualified candidate by default

Maybe if I do well enough at that then having actual job history under my belt would get me further in the mainstream, but I'd prefer for it not to have to come to that, because it also sounds like that kind of job would be pretty comfy :P

New Posts

18:33

0

Q: How many ways can you make change?

The "third type of Euler Transform" takes an integer sequence that gives the number of objects of a given weight and outputs a sequences that gives the number of multisets of objects that sum to that weight. In this code-golf challenge, you will be performing an analogous transform on lists. Exam...

rydwolf

18:56

@UnrelatedString I think it depends a lot on luck, but there's certainly some times where it can pay off to just do really good work and not necessarily make that visible. If things go right and you stumble into someone who can actually recognize the skills instead of the heuristics, that is

Unrelated String

Good to know

I guess it does make sense that there would be circumstances where people can actually see something to recognize

rydwolf

That does have the same issue of actually having to get your foot in the door though, which probably explains why the main category of people I've heard that happen to started either in the military or as laborer-type jobs lol

Unrelated String

lmao

rydwolf

I say just go start building buildings, everywhere you can fit one. Eventually someone will ask you to stop, and while you have their attention, whip out a laptop and write the best code they've ever seen

Guaranteed to work

Unrelated String

Facts

rydwolf

19:00

Maybe you could try to gun for something like Putnam top 500 or Advent of Code top 10, the sort of thing where you get job offers from people who literally just read your name in a list? If that's something your good at

wrong your dammit

Unrelated String

I've tried plenty at AoC, but barely ever make global even per problem and it's just not good for my sleep schedule :P

rydwolf

I feel like my ability to sound like a native english speaker [which I am] has declined since like 7th grade

Unrelated String

There was some guy from a startup who reached out to me years ago from it but I was in the middle of college applications so I ghosted him

Not like on purpose on purpose but

rydwolf

yeah I get you

I've done the same thing in almost the same way lol, got an interview for something at the same time I was busy so I missed the window when it would've been best to do it then I just gradually got more confident it'd be too late to act on it, which was a self-fulfilling prophecy

[it was a mcdonalds but ignore that]

Unrelated String

I forgot to reply for like a day or two (after I replied and he replied back), and then when I remembered I realized I was waaaaay too anxious to actually follow through if it was a good idea, mostly because I was already beyond burned out from communicating with my dad about anything at all

So I agonized over it for a year or so before just forgetting and moving on

Kinda exactly the same thing that happened with multiple professors asking if I was interested in research 💀

I did get back to one of them three years later, and he is interested if he can actually think of anything for me to do now lol

Funny how he basically made me stake everything on some fantasy scenario of naturally standing out and being recognized... and then it actually happened... and then he beat me down too hard over trying to keep my grades literally perfect for anything to come of it

Unrelated String

19:31

(and also the one time I did tell him about a professor reaching out with really appealing details he discouraged me from letting him make me "do free work")

rydwolf

20:00

Anyone wanna read my cover letter? :p

rydwolf

20:19

Unrelated String

wha

rydwolf

Most of the questions are skills that are actually relevant (malware analysis, CTFs, etc.) but I'm not really sure where this one came from lol

The Empty String Photographer

I honestly have no idea why Chat.SE doesn’t shorten that.

> chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/66214099#66214099

Unrelated String

Oooh, I just stumbled on some deep Jelly weirdness by sheer accident

And/or I don't even know the code I wrote

Emphatically not mutually exclusive

rydwolf

20:50

LMAO I had to order a high school transcript and I found this gem on the website they use for that

guys guess I'm screwed :(

Ginger

:(

rydwolf

I mean I guess I can tell what they were trying to say (that 0 on my list of 0 colleges would admit me) but the way they just tell you "0 colleges will likely admit you" is so fucking funny

Fun fact: I almost did end up getting admitted to zero colleges

att

nonzero is better than zero

rydwolf

I way underestimated how selective top colleges are so my plan was just to throw in an app for MIT and one for CMU, luckily I applied EA to MIT which made me actually think enough to apply to some safeties too lol

Like harvard

it's a miracle I'm not on the streets rn

att

that's a reliable safety

rydwolf

20:55

I almost did get in, tbf

Waitlisted and didn't bother following up

rydwolf

21:14

@UnrelatedString in soviet russia, jelly code knows you.

att

21:30

@UnrelatedString fwiw that was basically my situation a few years ago

good luck

Unrelated String

Thanks

(...how did things go after that)

att

21:40

i think things worked out decently in the end

it was also a better market than now, though

Unrelated String

Still good to hear

emanresu A

I suspect I'll be in the same situation in 2-5 years :\

Cryptography course notes are fun

emanresu A

22:29

I've unprotected this for now as, while it does have quite a few deleted answers from new users, it also has three high-quality answers from new users

lyxal

→ 1 message moved to Trash

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