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4:00 AM
Orlp wanted to be ಠrlp.
 
@EasterlyIrk i made an ibus keyboard github.com/somebody1234/IBus-Keyboards
 
wait a minute I though @TogaDown was @Upgoat?????
Woah
 
Shouldn't it be s/o/ಠ/g?
 
WTF?
 
I propose instead of "Great minds waste time alike —PhiNotPi" it should be "ಠ_ಠ - PPCG"
 
4:01 AM
@somebody1234 stop being confusing pls pls pls.
 
@SirPython it only needs to be changed once so I ommited the g to save 1 byte
 
Our room description should be "We're graduating! Get rekt, Code Review!"
 
 
4:02 AM
Ours should be "We graduated months ago! Get rekt, PPCG!"
 
"s/Code Review/the evil code reviewers/g"
 
@SirPython Simultaneous rekage
 
"We finally graduated! No thanks to Code Review!"
 
4:03 AM
"We have people who change names a lot, ಠ_ಠs galore, and PPCG mojo! (plus no evil code reviews)"
 
1 min ago, by Toga Down
"s/Code Review/the evil code reviewers/g"
 
what?
 
> Hmm... I think this is using a lot of processing power...
I only have 2 CPUs.
How is it using 300%?
 
4:04 AM
@VoteToClose only 2 CPUs
I have 1 CPU
 
Hmm... Code Review and PPCG started at around roughly the same time on Area 51, yet Code Review graduated much before PPCG did. I wonder what that says about PPCG...
 
@VoteToClose 4 threads, 400% total.
 
@mınxomaτ o
 
@SirPython Quality > Quantity
 
4:05 AM
@SirPython That it's harder to come up with good challenges than it is to ask someone to look over your code. ;D
 
I promise no rickrolls
 
In other news, it's using 3/4 gigs of RAM and 2 gigs of swap.
 
@EasterlyIrk Why the hell are you bit.ly-ing a xkcd link.
2
 
idk try it
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
 
It does the random xkcd thing.
 
4:06 AM
@EasterlyIrk Better link: http://xkcd.com/246/
 
ಠ⌣ಠ
 
Click the link multiple times.
@SirPython not falling for that.
In here, you learn to check the hover address first.
Survival of the fittest.
41 secs ago, by El'endia Starman
It does the random xkcd thing.
 
@SirPython Some of us in here have gotten into the habit of mousing over links in here...like RikerW said. :P
 
0
Q: What is this special kind of character?

bzalI've been following a python 3 book and have been learning to program on my own but the book doesn't explain this particularly: print(end = "%2i" % column) I empirically found out that they replace the value outside with inside, but I'd like to be specific about this. I would have liked to googl...

 
brb hammertime
 
4:07 AM
There are a few people to blame for this, and at the moment, I especially remember two: @AlexA. and @CᴏɴᴏʀO'Bʀɪᴇɴ. :P
 
15 secs ago, by El'endia Starman
There are a few people to blame for this, and at the moment, I especially remember two: @AlexA. and @CᴏɴᴏʀO'Bʀɪᴇɴ. :P
OOC of the day.
 
true
 
o shit, I forgot to eat and sleep
 
I will save that for later and make it sound creepy there.
 
So I'm assuming Quill got it from you guys to post links to that video in the 2nd Monitor considering we don't have to worry about the links we click.
 
4:08 AM
bye
 
@El'endiaStarman As I recall, it was @Doorknob who introduced me to the art of Rick Astley.
@SirPython Probably.
 
@AlexA. does it count as a hammer if 4 others vtc'ed it too?
 
I have 30h work behind me and passed that point of being tired.
 
@EasterlyIrk Everything I do is a hammer
 
@AlexA. Well, I particularly remember you linking to that masquerading behind a strawpoll link.
 
4:09 AM
^
 
@AlexA. <insert Dr. Horrible reference here>
 
@El'endiaStarman I don't remember doing that. That's genius.
 
rofl
oh, that reminds me
Not a rickroll, mouse over pls
 
does that count as a rickroll? :P
 
4:11 AM
Jan 22 at 3:32, by Alex A.
Out of curiosity: strawpoll.me/6605229
 
@AlexA. TypeError: must assign iterable to extended slice :/
 
@Dennis That's some bullshit
Would it at least be any faster to use logicals?
 
What is the ping in TNB chooser for my poll?
 
Idk how Python stores them.
 
No clue. I'll check.
 
4:12 AM
ping pls now pls ping
 
Btw, if I had tried -Wall right away, I could have saved myself an hour of debugging. ._.
 
I like this one.
 
@EasterlyIrk HikerW
or HikerRiker
 
@Dennis ∏_∏
R stores booleans as integers internally. +1 to the list of reasons why R is slow.
You only need one bit of information to store a boolean.
Why would you store it as an integer?
 
translate: sauber
(from German) clean
And it sounds like "sober" in English. I wonder if there's any connection... :P
 
4:18 AM
四百二十燃やせ。
 
translate: 四百二十燃やせ。
(from Japanese) 420 burn.
lawl
 
Yon hyaku ni jyu moyase
translate es: Four hundred and twenty blaze it
(from English) Ciento veinte blaze lo
(Full disclosure: I'm not a stoner but I find the whole "420 blaze it" thing incredibly amusing)
 
Hahahaha that's AMAZING
 
I don't know about you but I'd want to steal it way more now
 
4:25 AM
> Turns out, Idaho isn't alone in this problem. States like Washington and Colorado have also replaced 420 signs with 419.9 after consistently having to replace them after thefts by supposed sticky-fingered stoners.
 
> supposed sticky-fingered stoners.
 
> Most highways in the country don't cover more than 400 miles.
Which explains why this isn't a common thing in every state.
 
@NinjaBearMonkey Huh, same.
 
Oh wow, Clinton crushed Sanders in today's South Carolina Democratic Primary. 73.5% to 26.0%.
 
D:
 
4:31 AM
The race has only just begun, though. So far, we've had one tie, one Sanders >> Clinton, and one Clinton >> Sanders.
Oh, and one almost-tie in Nevada.
That one was 52.6% Clinton vs 47.3% Sanders.
 
I should find out when Washington's Democratic Primary is. Apparently in Washington you don't have to be registered with the party to vote in the primary.
 
I was just about to say the same thing. :)
 
You're too slow!
:P
Ever played with or against someone playing Sonic in SSB Brawl?
 
most annoying thing ever
 
4:35 AM
Ahahaha. My favorite character.
 
press b harder
 
@AlexA. Is that actually how Python stores Booleans? That sounds very inefficient.
 
I actually don't use B all that much.
 
oh then maybe you're not the devil. My brother plays him and spams b
 
4:37 AM
he's also the kind of person to play pikachu and spam the down-b though
 
I am, however, a beast when I get the Smash Ball. Oh yes...
 
@Dennis I have no idea how Python stores booleans. R stores them as ints and that's all I know.
Why is it inefficient to store a boolean as a single bit?
 
game and watch smash ball 4 life
 
That's incorrect.
 
wait what
 
4:40 AM
True acts like 1 in most cases, but it isn't 1.
 
@Dennis it's stored as the int 1
wait, my bad
 
@AlexA. I think you're right, and Python doesn't store Booleans as ints. I tried your suggestion, and the code 33% slower, which is rather amazing since the sieve isn't the slow part...
@AlexA. If you store a Boolean as an int, you only need one read to store the desired value in a register. If you store it as a bit, you have to AND it with a bitmask and possibly bitshift it to obtain the desired value. Memory efficient? Sure. But slow as hell.
 
It's worth noting that since in Python, everything is an object, with the overhead that employs, it's pretty much pointless to try to save space by making bools smaller. If you cared about memory use, you'd be using a different language to begin with. — kindall Nov 17 '11 at 17:35
 
lel
@Dennis Oh jeez. :|
@Dennis Oh that's good to know. Thanks.
 
4:56 AM
-1
Q: Rep requirement for asking

CatsAreFluffyThere's always some question or another on hold with a few downvotes on main, and they are usually created by users with 1 reputation. So if there was a small reputation requirement (eg 10) for making a question, this would be fixed. Would this be a good idea?

 
about non-sandboxed stuff: you could encourage people to use the userscript (after a feature has been added to hide 'ask question' in main and one to post sandbox answers to main
 
I never encourage users to use an off-site resource for on-site matters.
 
userscripts count as offsite?
 
It's software not affiliated with Stack Exchange that you have to get from GitHub, so yes.
 
hmm
then you may want to raise the issue with SE staff?
idk if bad questions is that big of a problem
 
5:06 AM
I just took that piece of music and made it over twice as long.
 
Are we seriously considering placing a reputation bar on one of the two core site actions?
 
@IGoBest don't think so
 
18
A: We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?

Alex A.Increase the "Ask Question" Privilege Threshold to +2 I should note that I'm not convinced that this is a good idea but I figure I'll mention it to see how others feel. On Q&A sites, the point of posting a question is to get help, to ask a question and get an answer. There shouldn't be a barrie...

 
@Upgoat Raise what issue?
 
5:17 AM
new users not using the sandbox/off-topic questions
 
There's nothing SE can do that we can't in this regard
 
We get off-topic questions, just the same as every other site that allows questions. NBD, just close them.
 
I think it's more about making challenges as polished as they can be before they get set free into the wild. A new user could get 10 downvotes for issues that could have been easily sorted out in the sandbox, a rep-free environment.
 
I have no problem encouraging new users to use the sandbox. Requiring it is ridiculous imo.
(or anything else as a hard barrier to asking questions)
 
well, it isn't required
 
5:21 AM
They wouldn't be required. If there's a reputation requirement, they just have to have one positive contribution on main and then they can post to their heart's content.
 
@AlexA. I now regret this
 
I also don't think the sandbox should ever be required.
 
Ok, let's flip this around. On Q/A sites, the question is the easy part and the answer is the hard part, right? Here it's the opposite. So, what's the rep requirement to answer on those sites?
 
@Doorknob You also taught me about Lenny.
 
@NewMetaPosts come on could we please stop with the "Yes"/"No" answers already
 
5:24 AM
@Doorknob What are you looking for instead of yes and no?
 
@AlexA. There's literally no point in posting an answer when all it says is "yes" or "no"
 
Still not following. It's a discussion and there are two opposing sides...
 
Yes, but I'm looking at a specific answer that has close to zero actual discussion
 
Oh, I see what you mean.
 
5:31 AM
@AlexA., regarding your "Yes" answer, would you be able to get data on the number of successful questions asked by 1 rep users vs. unsuccessful?
 
@El'endiaStarman I've looked at that on SEDE before. It's a low percentage but I was having a hard time coming up with something that was a decent measure of "success."
 
Hmm. Can you do a not-closed vs. closed metric?
And/or +/- score.
 
I think I was looking at the percentage that were not closed and had a score >= 0.
 
Even so, you can't pull deleted out of SEDE, so it would be skewed a bit. Not that I think a low percentage matters at all...
I can only imagine what the percentage is on SO or any of the other big sites.
 
I'm actually pretty conflicted on this. I think there are strong arguments for both sides.
 
5:34 AM
I'm not ;)
 
I know. :)
And that's good. If everyone was conflicted like me, there would be no consensus.
 
I know we all get tired of closing bad questions by new users, but this really does happen everywhere. Trying to curtail it by banning questions from new users seems like a drastic overreaction.
Not to mention we already have a significant barrier to asking (successful) questions. Keep piling on, and it would be a miracle if anyone wanted to join at all.
 
@IGoBest To be fair, I agree with that entirely. To me this isn't about closing bad questions, it's about making sure that new users have a positive first experience.
Which is part of why I'm conflicted.
I'm not sure what's a better first experience: Being able to do anything you want but potentially get down- and close-voted, or not being able to post a challenge to main right away.
 
It'd be great if questions could be pre-filled with a challenge template.
 
That might be nice but I doubt it would help all that much, really.
 
5:46 AM
@orlp I would appreciate any feedback you might have for my most recent composition: soundcloud.com/phinotpi/escapement2
 
6/10 too much phi, not enough pi
 
I know you are going to say something about 7ths, and about changing the chord every once and while.
@AlexA. That's my signature combination.
 
And a good combination it is. I'm #1 phi music phan.
 
It is hilarious how fast Dennis' post is
http://codegolf.stackexchange.com/a/74372/45459
 
@AlexA. The difference to me, at least, is that in general, we're pretty helpful in the comments about welcoming new users and helping them through getting it fixed, if it can be. A hard "no" with no interaction is a very different thing to my eyes.
 
5:52 AM
@Liam It's a little absurd. I've been considering posting an answer but I'm having a hard time coming up with an algorithm that's really fast and isn't just a port of Dennis'. :P
 
his python answer is faster than every other answer except his C answer
which is honestly even funnier
 
It's Dennis. What do you expect?
He's the king of golf, it was only a matter of time before he dominated all of the rest of the tags.
 
So he's not just fast at answering, but his answers are also fast. Well damn.
 
also his computer is ~2x as fast as mine
 
5:54 AM
It's probably made from his blood.
He has imparted it with his natural speed.
 
Liquid cooled by it at the least.
 
0
Q: Which dominoes are missing?

Digital TraumaA standard domino set has 28 unique pieces: Given a list of 28 or fewer unique dominoes, output the list required to make a complete set. Input and output dominoes are specified by two digits - the number of pips on each side of the domino, e.g. 00, 34, 40, 66. The digits may be given in any...

 
@IGoBest I do agree with this, but I don't consider a privilege threshold a "hard no." To me the privilege thresholds were more goals than anything else.
 
@Liam Any chance to get my Python answer timed with PyPy? It makes a huge difference.
 
3 mins ago, by Liam
his python answer is faster than every other answer except his C answer
 
5:55 AM
yeah I'll look into it tomorrow. I'll have to install it
 
PyPy will only further the gap between your Python answer and the next fastest answer. :P
 
Also, if you don't mind me asking, what processor do you have and how do you time the submissions? I'm a little surprised by the speed difference on your and my machine...
 
@AlexA. In a way,yes. But asking is such a core function that it shouldn't be gated.
 
AMD FX 6300 six core, 3.50 gHz processor
I timed yours with the code provided
 
@Dennis The tag wiki should probably strongly suggest this information be in the post if it doesn't already.
 
5:59 AM
all the other ones, i make a script with ./entry n .... for all n and then time ./script.sh
 
You should probably time them all using the same method, tbf.
 
@Liam I've edited my answer since. time for i in {1..100}; do for j in ${a[@]}; do ./pi $j; done; done > /dev/null executes all test cases 100 times, so there's less overhead to worry about.
 
I figured running yours the way it was posted would actually be slower with the loop
so I didn't feel too bad when it was still 100s of times faster than other entries.
 
Also, forgive me for insisting, but did you compile with gcc -O2 (100% speedup compared to bare gcc) and close memory-heavy applications (15% speedup on my machine if I close Chromium before timing)?
 
Tell you what, I'll retime all of them tomorrow
with nothing else open
all in the same way
so we get more accurate results
Honestly I should probably time them each a couple times as well
 
6:03 AM
Yes
 
Great! The loop is always better when the run time is very low. Also, output should probably be piped to /dev/null, since terminals are rather slow at printing.
@IGoBest That's a good idea.
 
@Dennis lel oops
 
6:33 AM
@PhiNotPi chord structure is better, with more tension, but you do not appropriately use rests
neither the bassline nor the melody every really stops
even when you have an opportunity to be silent, you still fill it by maintaining the last note
@PhiNotPi while the chord structure is better, I still think you stay too much in the ground note, try experimenting with some major detour to the 5th and the 2nd (counting from the base note)
(major as opposed to minor)
 
6:47 AM
feel free to give some of my stuff a listen too. I'm curious what you might think.
https://soundcloud.com/liam-noronha
 
+1
 
 
@Cyoce Taking after Rapunzel, I see... :P
 
Haha nice Tangled reference
Took me a sec
 
@El'endiaStarman I guess. Except instead of knocking them out then falling in love with them, I murder them... 25 times in a row
 
6:52 AM
JEEZ, how powerful is that frying pan?!
 
they say TF2 isn't pay to win.

Then you encounter the pan
 
The Pan
 
I do have a powerup that doubles my melee damage, but it's still guns vs frying pan
 
Peter?
PETER TAYLOR == PETER PAN CONFIRMED?!
 
WHO MADE PETER PAN'S RIDICULOUS OUTFIT? A TAYLOR OF COURSE!
2
 
6:58 AM
 
...okay, I don't get that reference at all, if it is one.
 
Nope
 
if it is a reference, then you're not alone
 
It is no reference, my children
 
You're only two years older than I am. ಠ_ಠ
 
7:05 AM
how old? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
 
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
1339 years old, he is.
 
ayy that makes you 1337
 
¯\_( ͡ಠ ͜ʖ ͡ಠ)_/¯
 
7:06 AM
And @Cyoce must be 420 years old.
 
Wooo 420 steal that mile marker sign!
 
@AlexA. you're off by 406 years
 
You're 14?
 
TOS violation!!!
 
@AlexA. yeah
 
7:08 AM
With all of the name changing that's going on, someone should assume the identity Watson8 to accompany @Sherlock9.
 
1 month from being 15 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Nice! Happy birthday soon.
 
I wonder what a graph of ages would look like. Two peaks around 15/16 and 22/23, probably. :P
 
With some outliers
 
of course
Can't forget the old geezers.
 
7:10 AM
:D
 
7:51 AM
Hello all
 
wait
seriously
why is everyone at PPCG either 15/16 or 22/23?
 
Well, we don't actually have that data, though it sounds correct to me. I don't know that anyone could say why without us gathering the data (and I'm not sure what the rules are at SE for gathering data of users)
 
8:06 AM
@Sherlock9 ?
well, you can use SEDE
 
I just mean that I think El was just speculating on what an age graph would look like, and that we don't have one
... We apparently have a Data Explorer. Fascinating
 
@Sherlock9 there was an age strawpoll a while ago, that's how El knows
 
8:23 AM
Do you have a link to that strawpoll by any chance?
 
@Upgoat Actually, no, it's because I have a fairly good memory. :P
 
wait
you didn't see the strawpoll?
 
If I did, I don't remember the results.
 
ah, cool
 
8:47 AM
Goodnight everybody!
wow, the response is underwhelming
anyhoo, I leave you with the final godlike of the day
(with peter taylor pan of course)
 
9:35 AM
@Cyoce What game is this?
@Upgoat The result is a tilted peace sign!
 
 
1 hour later…
10:44 AM
@flawr apparently TF2
 
oh
 
0
Q: A little bool magic

WidiSupply values for a and b so that this method returns true: private static bool Test(bool a, bool b) { if (a && b) return false; if (a) if (b) return true; return false; }

 
11:05 AM
@VoteToClose ah yeah, Dennis makes a good point. I haven't voted yet though.
 
11:37 AM
in The 2nd Monitor, 1 min ago, by Quill
wow: http://stackoverfiow.com/questions/214535573/how-to-mysql-access-database
 
what a waste of a great domain name :P
 
12:31 PM
why is "first posted" invalid winning criteria for programming-puzzles
(looking for opinions)
is it because its impossible to go back and improve?
 
@NathanMerrill It seems a bit unfair for the people who are sleeping at that moment
But if the puzzle is hard enough, I think it's a fine puzzle.
 
@NathanMerrill I don't think it's invalid. It's just not a great idea, I think.
 
well, it currently isn't (considering our indecisiveness on the meta)
but you're saying that it shouldn't be invalid (even though you don't like it)?
 
@NathanMerrill is it? I only skimmed the meta post but I thought it suggested not having a winning criterion at all, not making FGITW the winning criterion.
@NathanMerrill I'm saying I don't have a good reason why it should be invalid, but yeah I don't really like it.
 
@NathanMerrill In my opinion you should be able to go back to any question and compete in it if you want. Although there are some which end at a given date but I don't really like those either.
 
12:37 PM
people keep on quoting: "A scenario in which there is no "best" answer, just the fastest, is not conducive to quality"
 
this is true
 
@randomra then KoTHs should be invalid
but we realistically can't have indefinitely running KoTHs
 
if the first valid answer "wins", no matter how shoddy of a solution it is, there is no incentive to come up with a better solution later.
@NathanMerrill ideally we should, but currently that's hardly possible because we can't fully automate the trials at this point.
 
absolutely. there's no long term value, unless nobody finds a solution
(besides people wanting to find other clever solutions)
 
@NathanMerrill they can be rerun at any time, you can compete and post a better code, you won't get the checkmark though, that's true
 
12:41 PM
another case is cops-n-robbers and other "your submission depends on X submission" challenges
 
anyway, what can you assign to bools in the c# question apart from True and False?
 
often times in cops-n-robbers we require a solution to be posted after X days, effectively killing all competition
 
@Upgoat no
 
that would give a unassignment error
 
they aren't bool?s
I think you'll have to mess with either System.Boolean or && via reflection
my first idea was inheriting from bool and overriding && for the new class, but bool is a struct so you can't inherit from it.
 
12:43 PM
@MartinBüttner so you assume you can run code before giving the values to the function?
 
"Supply the values a and b so that true is returned."
 
well, the OP said reflection was valid as long as you don't change the method
 
"Is there any restriction on how much use of reflection is allowed?" - "You can use it of course - no restriction."
 
ok, so bool is really True/False, I was surprised it could be something else by default
 
12:46 PM
perhaps programming puzzles are like the super-easy questions on stack overflow. They are technically valid, but are most people don't enjoy answering them
 
1:08 PM
Chat mini-mini-challenge: Determine the big-O complexity of the function f(x)=x/log(x)+(sqrt(3)sqrt(x-2)-3)/3.
 
@LegionMammal978 Surely it is O(x)
 
That's what I was thinking
 
But I think O(x / log(x)) is sharp.
 
But I can tell that x/log(x) grows faster than O(sqrt(x))
Using basic plotting
Specifically, I'm trying to compare the prime-counting function to the inverse of x^2+(x+1)^2+(x+2)^2
 
1:17 PM
0
A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

randomraWhat can I buy in Catan? Catan is a board game where players collect 5 commodities: brick, lumber, wool, grain and ore. You can trade commodities in the following ways: you can always sell 4 of one kind to buy 1 of any other kind if you have 3-for-1 trading possibility you can sell 3 of one k...

 
1:34 PM
 
To note: for this question, some relevant information is that && in C# acts more like a goto... jussayin. ;P
 
oh, I think I have the solution, but I don't want to open up VS to test it
 
1:51 PM
@NathanMerrill csharppad.com
 
already opened up VS
 
ideone has it too
 
Unsafe code has been driving me crazy
 
how do I quote a comment?
 
1:53 PM
(in chat)
 
paste the link
it oneboxes
 
how do I get the link?
 
click the time it was posted
 
TIL
@Widi See that's why "first valid solution" might not be the best idea. You might get an uninteresting but working solution which just messes with some internals via reflection and then there's no incentive for anyone to go looking for a more interesting solution without reflection. — Martin Büttner ♦ 23 mins ago
^ I think that this is an issue of ambiguous questions, not the type of challenge
 
why? it's a good think if a challenge allows multiple approachess?
 
1:55 PM
I'm saying its not specific to programming-puzzles
I can do the same thing on a code-golf (intend for answers to do A, but there's a different solution B that people find and use)
 
but with code golf there's an incentive to explore both solutions
with FGITW "scoring", once there is any solution there's no reason to look for others
 
right, but that has nothing to do with the "uninteresting solution".
 
has no idea how it would work
 
even if the first solution is interesting, there's still no reason to look for others
 
true, but then it's less of an issue, in terms of content quality
 
1:59 PM
Therefore, I'd say that programming-puzzles are harder to get right (because there are lots of edge cases you have to consider)
 
Am I the only one here who in Mathematica uses NestWhile[#+1&,1,!<condition>&] to find the first number meeting a condition?
 

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