The Nineteenth Byte

trichoplax

14:00

17

I really like this question but I know there are complaints of it being more about art than programming. I'd like to hear both sides of this and see what is in the best interest of the community and the site's public beta. I'm posting my own view as an answer so that the votes will show where it...

discussion

VTCAKAVSMoACE

@trichoplax Dang. I'd like to involve this idea of Romeo and Juliet somehow. It's just too perfect.

Not necessarily in this format.

trichoplax

I can't predict how people will vote for certain. My guess is that you'd need to restrict the output slightly more to make it pass as a programming contest

Calvin's Hobbies

@VTCAKAVSMoACE It should be Romeo, not Montague I believe (phrases.org.uk/meanings/262200.html) (unless that was intentional?)

VTCAKAVSMoACE

It is, and I'm aware of that.

trichoplax

@Calvin'sHobbies Indeed. Even though it's the Montague part of the name that is causing Juliet a problem. Maybe Shakespeare was having a bad day when he wrote that

VTCAKAVSMoACE

14:06

I'll take down the question in meta, but if someone can think of a way to implement this Romeo and Juliet idea as a juxtaposed Code Golf and Code Review.

Calvin's Hobbies

@VTCAKAVSMoACE This is definitely an art contest. Writing a clever poem seems to be the primary focus, and the corresponding programs are trivial to write (e.g. print(mypoem))

@VTCAKAVSMoACE But it's not an apt analogy. We're not star crossed lovers.

VTCAKAVSMoACE

Yeah, that's why I was going to add a "creative output" thing. But that seemed be a generally disregarded idea as well, so I'm removing said art contest.

Calvin's Hobbies

We're plain rivals (barely)

VTCAKAVSMoACE

@Calvin'sHobbies Never said you were. Capulet and Montague were rivals. Juliet and Romeo just happened to be the breakpoint of that.

trichoplax

We're the forgotten ex-rivals

Geobits

14:09

Are we even rivals? I know there was the one meta post and a half-meme about it, but the two sites are not really anything alike.

Anonymous

The thing with CR is, they keep saying our suggestions are "poor practice" and result in "unreadable code".

trichoplax

It was just spin. There are plenty of people happily posting to both

Geobits

@Mego That's ok, because theirs are terribly golfed.

Nathan Merrill

we both teach people how to program better

Anonymous

CR: "Name that variable something useful and descriptive." PCCG: "Why are you using 2-byte variable names? You haven't used up all the single-byte ones yet!"

Calvin's Hobbies

14:10

@VTCAKAVSMoACE But a hundred other rivalry stories could apply as well. R+J would only apply if one of their mods came here and vice versa or something.

Geobits

@NathanMerrill So do SO and Programmers, but I wouldn't consider them our rivals ;)

Anonymous

@Geobits Rival would imply they could compete with us

Geobits

Yep. And I see no point of actual competition between us and CR.

Nathan Merrill

@Geobits so none of us are rivals

sounds like a good solution to me :P

Geobits

Except, maybe, "graduation date", which we all know is happening next month anyway.

Nathan Merrill

14:14

lol

Calvin's Hobbies

@Geobits November 17th. Mark your calendars.

2

Geobits

Can we move it a day? The 17th is no good for me.

Rainbolt

Most complicated MTG answer I think I've ever written: boardgames.stackexchange.com/a/27308/6692

Nathan Merrill

do it on the 17th at midnight

VTCAKAVSMoACE

@Calvin'sHobbies Hmm... very well.

Nathan Merrill

14:15

so its simultaneously on the 17th and the 18th

Rainbolt

Makes you wonder how people play Magic at all

trichoplax

I would star Geobits' post but then everyone would know it was fake

Calvin's Hobbies

@Geobits They'll arrange it so your interface doesn't update until the 19th.

Geobits

@trichoplax That's why Calvin's is getting the stars :D

trichoplax

Indeed :)

Rainbolt

14:16

Calvin's post doesn't mention graduating. Not star-worthy.

Anonymous

Wait I thought it was November 1st

Geobits

It's like people don't trust me :(

trichoplax

@Geobits I love the fact that you used "Calvin's is" in a grammatically correct sentence

Geobits

Calvin's's would've been better.

trichoplax

Yes, Calvin's's'd've been much better

5

Anonymous

14:17

@Rainbolt neeeerd

Rainbolt

Is it nerdy or geeky? I feel like it's nerdy, but I play Magic at Geek World, so I'm not sure about the distinction anymore

trichoplax

Some geeks are nerdy

Geobits

Doesn't matter. It's coming from a pythonista, so you can disregard it.

Anonymous

Did I just get called a pythonista?

Geobits

I think so :)

trichoplax

14:19

@Mego Relax it's a huge compliment

Anonymous

I am not nearly good enough at programming Python or quoting Monty Python to be called a pythonista

Geobits

Wasn't meant as an insult. Just sayin', someone who answers mainly in python on a code golfing site doesn't have much room to be calling people nerds ;)

Anonymous

I was joking anyway :P

trichoplax

I always assumed we were a geek site??

Anonymous

I also play MTG

Anonymous

14:21

Python is just much easier to write than my other strong languages

Geobits

@Mego neeeerd

Rainbolt

So many people here play MTG (or played... or have kids that play)

We even have a few challenges about it

Calvin's Hobbies

@Rainbolt Tried it a few times. Meh (same with D&D)

Anonymous

Python (2 and 3), C, C++, C#, Java, and VB are my main languages that I know

Calvin's Hobbies

@Rainbolt Why is it a gathering?

Rainbolt

14:22

That's why I brag here about my unsung accomplishments. I wrote that enormous answer and the other guy added a half sentence to his first paragraph to make it correct.

trichoplax

In the end, there can be only one

Anonymous

I should hop back on the PCCG MC server

Anonymous

And make my house less of a small cottage in the woods

Rainbolt

@Calvin'sHobbies No particular reason. They added some words because "Magic" was too generic to be trademarked.

trichoplax

What does PCCG stand for?

Calvin's Hobbies

14:24

@Mego Is that your spiraling wood tower?

Anonymous

@Calvin'sHobbies No I'm just happy to see you

Calvin's Hobbies

@trichoplax He means PPCG (and my minecraft server)

trichoplax

@Calvin'sHobbies I know - I was being awkward - I should stop that

Anonymous

In seriousness, no, I think VTAhskjhasjfbja might have built that

Anonymous

I always type PCCG instead of PPCG - challenges replaces puzzles in my head

trichoplax

14:26

I'd actually prefer that as the name

Calvin's Hobbies

in PPCG Minecraft Server Chat Relay, 12 hours ago, by Chat Relay

<VTCAKAVSMoACE> Vintage Trench Coat Also Known As Vintage Steve Man or A****** C**** E***, last of which are my name

VTCAKAVSMoACE

(~-.-)~

Calvin's Hobbies

Alex got to the bottom of it

Optimizer

Can I expand this to include the new ES7 features, or would that work better in a separate question? — ETHproductions 12 hours ago

How about changing it to ESNext?

VTCAKAVSMoACE

I did not build a spiraling wood tower. c:

Optimizer

14:27

@ETHproductions ---------------------------------^

Anonymous

I know there's a spiraling stone tower near mine

Anonymous

On a mountain next to Phi's

Rainbolt

I used to get this guy confused with Alex A. for the longest time: boardgames.stackexchange.com/q/27299/6692

VTCAKAVSMoACE

Oh, hey, I can see the spiral wood tower from my house.

Anonymous

@VTCAKAVSMoACE That's really weird because we're talking about Minecraft

VTCAKAVSMoACE

14:36

...

Anonymous

There's a spiral wood tower in England?

Anonymous

One of my British gaming friends in a chat said she was going to visit the Tower of London

Anonymous

Everyone else, on cue: "What are you in for?"

Rainbolt

Is the joke that she's a girl and all the guys spoke simultaneously?

Anonymous

No, it's because the Tower of London used to be a jail

Rainbolt

14:40

Oh, I thought "What are you in for?" was a UK way of saying "What are you visiting for?"

Anonymous

No, I'm American :P

Anonymous

It's slang for "what did you get sent to jail for"

Rainbolt

How do you and all of your friends all know that the Tower of London used to be a jail?

Anonymous

Because it's pretty well known?

VTCAKAVSMoACE

^ He's right.

Rainbolt

14:43

I wonder if there is a pattern behind this. I just googled something, and got 154,000,000 results. I Googled 154,000,000, and got 202,000 results. I Googled that and got a different number. Etc. Etc.

3

Eventually I think I would hit a cycle

VTCAKAVSMoACE

o-o

Rainbolt

Until someone added a new page...

orlp

guys

we should tackle agar.io together

and write the ultimate player-crushing AI

Anonymous

yes hello i am a guy most days

Anonymous

agar.io sucks now

Anonymous

14:55

Although an agar.io-based koth challenge would be fun

orlp

@Mego but why not actually own the actual thing?

Anonymous

I'm not against writing a beautifully-golfed agar.io bot

VTCAKAVSMoACE

Uh. KOTH, where we host a small server and test them all together?

Calvin's Hobbies

@Rainbolt Interesting idea

@Rainbolt When I started with test I ended up in a 441,000 -> 546,000 -> 441,000 cycle after maybe 10 searches

orlp

15:10

@Rainbolt similar are wikipedia cycles

Calvin's Hobbies

Starting with 1 I get to the same place, just slower:

1
25,270,000,000
4,110
42,500,000
339,000
1,370,000
482,000
623,000
419,000
1,040,000
595,000
1,280,000
658,000
461,000
547,000
447,000
486,000
527,000
441,000
546,000
441,000 <- cycle

Chat-challenge: Find a different cycle.

Anonymous

Wikipedia trivia: if you take any article, click on the first link in the article text not in parentheses or italics, and then repeat, you will eventually end up at "Philosophy".

Anonymous

Err

Anonymous

Wrong one

Anonymous

Oh wait it is the right one

Anonymous

15:13

It's the hovertext

Calvin's Hobbies

Better yet, find a number that results in that amount of results.

Anonymous

@orlp see above xkcd

Calvin's Hobbies

There's also an actual wiki page about that (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Getting_to_Philosophy)

But I like this google version better

New Sandboxed Posts

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

Which language is shortest? This is a very raw text, and I haven't fully figured out the rules, but I wanted to get some feedback before I spent the rest of my afternoon on it. Can I post a challenge similar like the one below? Create a program that find the latest 50 challenges with the code...

Beta Decay

xefer.com//wikipedia

If someone can make it for Wikipedia, surely one of you can make one for Google

Dr. Emmett Brown

15:32

Wait I did that like a week ago

Geobits

Well, crap. I think I need a new job.

I hate job searching.

New Main Posts

0

Q: Imperfections dans mes français

To conjugate a verb in l'imparfait, one needs to perform the following steps: Find the "stem" of the word; this is achieved by omitting the -ons from the nous-conjugated form of the word. For example, vivre is nous vivons; removing -ons from vivons yields viv-. Take the stem and add an appropri...

code-golf natural-language

Dr. Emmett Brown

But using python and graph-tool

@BetaDecay I'll show you when I get home

Beta Decay

@Geobits What've you done?

@Dr.EmmettBrown Sure :D

Dr. Emmett Brown

@BetaDecay but how would one make it for Google?

First result becomes new search term?

Geobits

15:37

Believe it or not, nothing. We're transitioning to a new payroll system, and the thing is bugged to hell. I've been told that due to the new system, my (and several other employees) pay would be cut around 6%. It seems batshit crazy. There's no seeming reason for it besides a technical issue, so screw that.

So the options are: Work longer for the same pay, work the same for less pay, or find another job.

Rainbolt

I lost a penny once when we transitioned to a new pay system

(per paycheck)

Geobits

I'd be okay with a penny :)

Dr. Emmett Brown

I lost a penny once because 9.99$

Thomas Kwa

@Geobits ?!

Beta Decay

@Dr.EmmettBrown I was thinking more about Calvin's chat challenge

Geobits

15:40

@ThomasKwa I have a feeling they're going to lose several people very soon.

Dr. Emmett Brown

Oh, haven't seen it

@Geobits I need a job too...

Geobits

I thought you were a crackpot inventor?

2

Who needs a job when you have a time machine?

Dr. Emmett Brown

The future isn't what I expected

Beta Decay

@Dr.EmmettBrown First of all search a random number. Then search the number of search results that search results with. Eventually there should be a loop where you get back to the number you started with or a previous number of search results

Doorknob

@Dr.EmmettBrown yes... why?

Beta Decay

15:42

I hope you understand that because I don't

Dr. Emmett Brown

@Doorknob just wanted to change it sooner than the 30 day limit

@BetaDecay sounds pretty easy given that I already have Wikipedia crawler code

Doorknob

you could change it on a different site and tell it to copy your profile to all network sites

Geobits

Yay comments

Dr. Emmett Brown

Huh

@Geobits Endor's game

New Main Posts

-2

Q: Recompile linux with the biggest security issue resolved

Most vulnerabilities in C are related to buffer overflows in string manipulation. I think the idea to use \0 as end-of-string marker is the worst fault in IT which will hardly ever get fixed. ... but maybe there is a brave hero who can run linux and its user land with a c library which uses a s...

code-challenge c

Dr. Emmett Brown

15:49

Ugh that looks............

............

New Sandboxed Posts

16:03

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

Rectangle factors (better name needed) ascii-art code-challenge Task Given a positive integer below 1000, display all possible rectangles with that area. Let's say the input is 20. We can make a rectangle 20×1, 10×2, or 5×4, so this is a valid output: ******************** ********** ******...

quartata

16:20

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

The Alex Fact-Checker As many of you know, the Nineteenth Byte is divided into two camps: those who think that alex-is-wrong, and those who think that alex-is-right. In this challenge, we're going to truly determine once and for all which camp is right. Challenge Given a quote of one of Alex's...

WIP

Calvin's Hobbies

@Geobits Prime Rectalization > Factory Packing

Anonymous

@quartata thumbs-up

quartata

yasss

Still working on it since I need sample outputs

I think this'll be a pretty fun challenge though

And useful!

Anonymous

What's the format for the input?

quartata

message - x(m/h/d) or date ago by Alex A.

New Main Posts

16:23

3

Q: Implement an API for probability distributions

Introduction In this challenge, your task is to implement a collection of simple functions that together form a usable mini-library for simple probability distributions. To accommodate some of the more esoteric languages people like to use here, the following implementations are acceptable: A ...

code-golf probability-theory

quartata

Like the way it shows up on the starboard

I'm going to make this more clear

This is just a prototype challenge

Anonymous

So it'll be something like "<comment> - <time ago> by Alex A."?

quartata

Yes basically

So it might be 2h ago or Oct 13

Anonymous

Having <time ago> as a UNIX timestamp would be fantastic

quartata

I don't know how the timestamp looks when it was a year ago so I'll just ignore that

Anonymous

16:25

I'd say 1yr ago

quartata

@Mego Yes, but that's not how SE does it sadly. I wanted to design it so that you could literally copy something off the starboard and put it in.

@Mego Hmm. I thought it turned into an actual date when it got that far away though

Anonymous

I dunno

Anonymous

I'm too new

quartata

Me too :(

Dennis

@quartata One of those sets has measure zero.

quartata

16:27

@Dennis What?

Oh the alex-is-right people?

Dennis

:D

quartata

Well technically alex himself is in the alex-is-right camp

And since @ಠ_ಠ is his sock I'd probably throw him in there too

Dennis

Nah, he knows the truth.

quartata

So that's 2 people in alex-is-right and the rest of the Nineteenth Byte in alex-is-wrong

Hmm..

Geobits

@Calvin'sHobbies I agree in a general sense. I was looking for something without prime, though, since the challenge isn't about primes ;)

quartata

16:29

I was originally planning on making it check the resulting checksum to see if it was prime but the checksum would be so big it'd take a while

It would probably be funnier though since the probability of him being right would be so low

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_surely alex-is-wrong

New Sandboxed Posts

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

The Alex Fact-Checker As many of you know, the Nineteenth Byte is divided into two camps: those who think that alex-is-wrong, and those who think that alex-is-right. In this challenge, we're going to truly determine once and for all which camp is right. Challenge Given a quote of one of Alex's...

quartata

Wow what a slow bot lmao

Took him 15 minutes

Geobits

Or eleven. Whatever :P

quartata

Oh noes a downvote

I guess that means time to actually fix the challenge so it makes sense

Dennis

@quartata Well, it would make more sense if the veracity of the message did not depend on how long ago it was posted...

I wonder how many languages have md5 and big integers as built-ins...

Calvin's Hobbies

16:34

@quartata It's just not very interesting except for the forced meme value.

Dennis

Also, if you actually create alex-is-right and alex-is-wrong on main, Doorknob may slap you with a large trout.

Geobits

I've been smacked by this trout. It's not fun, but it could be much worse.

Rainbolt

Someone should post on meta a competition to Halloweenize the avatars of various folks who are being boring

quartata

Deleting

I'm in a challenge slump.

Rainbolt

Deleted before I even posted. I'm sad.

Geobits

16:39

I've already posted a Martin candidate in chat. He did not take the hint ;)

Beta Decay

@Rainbolt I was going to do that. I have track record of ridiculously under-specifying these kinds of challenges though :P

Anonymous

The Alex candidates were good

Calvin's Hobbies

@Geobits Link?

Geobits

Basic, but it fits the theme well :)

Rainbolt

(Original message: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/24850118#24850118)

Anonymous

16:42

I'm a little sad @BetaDecay didn't use the one I made

Beta Decay

@Geobits All you need is to give Martin fangs and make his jacket a black cape

@Mego I tried them but they didn't work too well

Geobits

@BetaDecay Go for it. It's possible that if we spam enough variations in chat, he'll use one of them >_>

Rainbolt

I like the current one. The blood looks like blood.

Calvin's Hobbies

@Geobits Reminds me of this

Rainbolt

Optimartin was horrifying. I think Optimizer should use that one

Anonymous

16:43

@Geobits It's also possible that alex-is-right, but we all know the truth

Geobits

Is it?

Beta Decay

@Rainbolt You like my current avatar or Geobits' Martin?

Anonymous

It is almost certain that alex-is-wrong

Anonymous

So even though the probability of alex-is-right is 0, it's still theoretically possible

Geobits

I guess, even though we won't see it in our lifetimes.

Rainbolt

16:46

@BetaDecay Your current avatar

Calvin's Hobbies

My Martin attempt:

Beta Decay

@Rainbolt Man thanks :D

Anonymous

@Calvin'sHobbies Did you use KidPix or something?

Calvin's Hobbies

paint.net

Geobits

I think he's frozen in carbonite :)

Rainbolt

16:46

Beta Decay

Where'd you get the big version of Martin's avatar?

Rainbolt

It's blown up

I used the thumbnail in his profile

Geobits

"Profile page -> open image in new tab" or something like that.

gravatar.com/avatar/…

Rainbolt

Oh, that one is larger

Beta Decay

Hmm if only it hadn't zoomed in...

Geobits

16:50

Needs a bit of blur to match the rest.

Then crop to a square and it's good.

Rainbolt

Can't wait for @MartinBüttner to wake up...

3

Dennis

Wake up?

From the dead?

Rainbolt

I tried to run Dennis the Menace through MakeMeZombie.com and it couldn't find his face

Beta Decay

2

Rainbolt

Here's another Martin one: makemezombie.com/shared/4/mmz/1510228/…

Dennis

17:00

<-- Alright, alright. In the spirit of Halloween.

Geobits

Very nice :D

Rainbolt

What band is that?

Anonymous

Deer god what is that

Geobits

The Cranberries

Dennis

Which one was the deer god again?

Geobits

17:04

It's this thing‌.

Anonymous

Dennis

I cannot help but wonder WTH Chrome is messing up my avatar...

Anonymous

I can see it fine on your PCG profile

Anonymous

But not in here

Geobits

Unsure. I'm using Chrome and it appears to be fine here.

Dennis

17:08

It's not just the new one. Since the last update, Chrome randomly replaces my own avatar with a borken version of someone else's.

Calvin's Hobbies

What's the logic word for "assumption"

Geobits

Assuming you meant to use the Cranberries' Zombie image, that is. If not, I have no idea what to say.

Anonymous

@Calvin'sHobbies Given?

Calvin's Hobbies

@Mego More technical, it might start with p...

Geobits

presumption?

Dennis

17:10

Premise?

Anonymous

^

Calvin's Hobbies

@Dennis Yes!

Thanks

Dennis

NP

Anonymous

P

Geobits

General question: I think CyberCoders is pretty much a scam. Is this more or less the feeling others get?

Dennis

17:16

^ Random avatar of the moment.

Cᴏɴᴏʀ O'Bʀɪᴇɴ

xD

Geobits

That's definitely borken.

Cᴏɴᴏʀ O'Bʀɪᴇɴ

@Geobits Yeah, it looks nice, but it's all show.

Anonymous

Geobits

Am I the only one it's showing up for?

Anonymous

17:17

probably

Dennis

@Mego Kindly refresh your chat tab.

Anonymous

I liked it better when it was broken

Anonymous

Less spoopy

Geobits

@CᴏɴᴏʀO'Bʀɪᴇɴ Thanks. When I see their listings on other sites, my spidey senses tingle a bit, but it's nice to know it isn't just me.

Cᴏɴᴏʀ O'Bʀɪᴇɴ

@Geobits No problem ^_^

aditsu

17:40

scrolls up oh jeez!

aditsu

17:52

heh, agar.io... I got to no. 1 a few times (in my region)

@orlp by that I thought you meant we should team up and play together

ETHproductions

@Optimizer I suppose that's a pretty good idea.

It's not like all ES6 features are supported everywhere yet, and very few of ES7's are

So ESNext would probably be better

Transcript for