How do I program using cat?
- by Sparragus
In this xkcd comic:
they mention that real programmers use cat. Well, I was asking myself: how could you program using the cat command?
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How do I find everything between two characters after a word using grep, without outputting the entire line?
- by Nick Sweeting
I am downlading the info.0.json file from xkcd and trying to parse just the alt text. I don't care if there are quotes around it or not. The problem it that the info.0.json file is all one line, and the alt text is in quotes after the word "alt=". Trying cat info.0.json | grep alt just returns the whole file (because it's all one line). What is the grep or sed code that will get me the alt text?Read the article
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How to securely generate memorable passwords?
- by Tim
Whenever I need new passwords I use some tools to generate those, preferable memorable passwords, but I've been wondering how secure this might actually be. Using The xkcd random number generator is probably pretty bad, cat /dev/random is probably pretty good, but generating memorable passwords seems a bit more tricky. Whenever a program generates a memorable password, it only uses a subset of the total password space available, and it is not clear to me how big this space is. Of course a long password should help in this case, but if the `memorable' part of the program is too predictable, your passwords are not very good in the end. TL;DR: how secure are memorable password generators, given the fact that `memorable' passwords are a subset of total password space? Some tools I know of: pwgen -- seems ok, but passwords are not too memorable Mac Password Assistant - generates memorable passwords but it is unclear to me how this works.Read the article
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Is Flash typically slow on Linux?
- by CSarnia
Specifically, I'm running Mint 8 (Helena). I'm extremely new to Linux, and was searching for a solution that was user-friendly and GUI oriented. The box won't be used for much other than web browsing and word processing. Anyway, it runs relatively smoothly, except for Youtube videos... especially full-screen, which runs at like 1 FPS, and even after closing, slows Firefox to a crawl until I restart it. I'd seen an xkcd comic on the matter, but regarded it as a joke until now. Is this actually a problem? Are there any remedies I can try to smooth the applications?Read the article
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How to see ALT text in Firefox
- by torbengb
I know Mozilla thinks it's a bug that IE shows ALT text even after the image has loaded; while users think it's a bug that Firefox doesn't work exactly like IE. This disagreement is irrelevant to my question: How can I make my Firefox show the ALT tooltip when I hover the mouse over an image? Obviously XKCD is a bit tame without this essential functionality. I've tried the Firefox plugin Popup ALT Attribute but it doesn't work; after restarting the browser and hovering over an image with an ALT text, no tooltip appears. I reproduced this on several computers with several (Windows) OS versions.Read the article
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Can't access certain specific IP/domain on Windows 7
- by jfrobishow
Been banging my head on the wall for some time now. I have a fresh install of Windows 7 - Ultimate ~x86. Some IPs can't resolve properly, it doesn't matter if I try using Firefox, Chrome or IE I end up with a domain not found (server not found, etc.) I am behind a router, all the other computers aren't affected only this Win 7 machine. It's only certain sites. e.g. xkcd.com, facebook's cdn, google group. Things I have tried: flushdns ipconfig renew Disable IP v6 on the NIC Double checked that the computer was in the right timezone @ the right time. Reinstall the NIC driver. Again 90% of the sites will work but not the major one :P help!!!Read the article
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Browser extension (or other software) to delay page load
- by Doug Harris
The alt text to today's comic at xkcd.com (strip below) says: After years of trying, I broke this habit in a day by decoupling the action and the neurological reward. I set up a simple 30-second delay I had to wait through, in which I couldn't do anything else, before any new page or chat client would load (and only allowed one to run at once). The urge to check all those sites magically vanished--and my 'productive' computer use was unaffected. (bold is my emphasis) Does anybody know of a browser extension or other software that will add this sort of delay? I've seen extensions which simply block sites, but not a delay like this.Read the article
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What is your most preferred method of site pagination?
- by John Smith
There seem to be quite a few implementations of this feature. Some sites like like Stackexchange have it laid out like this: [1][2][3][4][5] ... [954][Next] Other sites like game forums may have something like this: [1][2][3] ... [10] ... [50] ... [500] ... [954][Next] Some sites like webcomics (XKCD comes to mind) have it laid out like this: [Last][Prev][Random][Next][First] Reddit has a very simple pagination with only: [Prev][Next] Sites like Stackexchange and Google also allow you to change how many results you want per page. Personally, I have never used this feature. Is it even worth including or does it just further confuse the design with needless features? Personally, I have only ever seen the need for the webcomic style (without the random). If I need to go to a specific page (which is very, very rare) then I can just edit the address bar. Is it good design to make something more complex for rare occasions where it might make save the user some time? Is having to edit the address bar to navigate the site effectively in some circumstances bad design?Read the article
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the best method for google indexing text content in images?
- by dnuske
Hi everybody, I have a webpage where I put 1 image once in a while, this is just like xkcd.com I would like to know how to let google know the text in my images. My approach is to put the text in alt html attribute, like this: <img src="http://myapokalips.com/public/cartoons/021_Robot_Tattoo.png" alt="RETARD - aw, that's a sick tattoo! - yea, bro, it means 'strength'" /> is that right? or should I put the text in some random metatag? thank you in advance.Read the article
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Best anti boss tricks to hide your private page navigation from your desktop.
- by systempuntoout
This question is slightly related to programming and it's kinda lame, i know; but i saw many funny things in these years and i'm looking for new tricks from you. I'm talking about methods to fast-hide\camouflage not job related web pages on your desktop when boss arrives like a ghost\ninja behind your shoulders. I know how much can be frustrating, programming hard for ten hours and then been caught by your boss watching XKCD during a 2 minutes break. I think the most common anti boss trick is the evergreen CTRL+TAB, but you have to be fast and your left hand has to be near the keyboard. I saw pitch black brightness on Lcd (how can you pretend to program on that?) or custom sized browser to fit a little space just below the IDE. My favourite one at the moment is using fire gesture plugin with FF; with a micro gesture you can hide FF to your tray in a blink of an eye. Do you have any trick to share?Read the article
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NP-complete problem in Prolog
- by Ashley
I saw this ECLiPSe solution to the problem mentioned in this XKCD comic. I tried to convert this to pure Prolog. go:- Total = 1505, Prices = [215, 275, 335, 355, 420, 580], length(Prices, N), length(Amounts, N), totalCost(Prices, Amounts, 0, Total), writeln(Total). totalCost([], [], TotalSoFar, TotalSoFar). totalCost([P|Prices], [A|Amounts], TotalSoFar, EndTotal):- between(0, 10, A), Cost is P*A, TotalSoFar1 is TotalSoFar + Cost, totalCost(Prices, Amounts, TotalSoFar1, EndTotal). I don't think that this is the best / most declarative solution that one can come up with. Does anyone have any suggestions for improvement? Thanks in advance!Read the article
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Any valid use of goto in PHP?
- by nikic
I know, there are other questions about the goto statement introduced in PHP 5.3. But I couldn't find any decent answer in there, all were of the type "last resort", "xkcd", "evil", "bad", "EVIL!!!". But no valid example. Only statements that there aren't any uses. Or statements that there are some rare use cases (again, without examples). So, the question is: "Which are the valid uses of goto in PHP". Answers for "Is goto evil" are not welcome and will get downvoted. Thanks :) Or does somebody have a link to an RFC where the decision is explained - I couldn't find one.Read the article
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Six Unusual Blogs I Like
- by Bill Graziano
I subscribe to and read over 100 SQL Server blogs every day. I link to posts that I think are interesting. I also read a fair number of non-SQL Server blogs. Here are a few that I think are interesting. danah boyd. She is a researcher with Microsoft and writes about privacy, social media and teenagers. I discovered her blog while looking for strategies to keep my personal and professional life separate. (I haven’t found a good solution to that yet.) Her stories of how teenagers use Facebook and other social media tools are fascinating. Clayton’s Web Snacks. Steve Clayton works at Microsoft and has a variety of blogs out there. This one focuses on … hmmm. His latest posts are on graffiti, infographics, paper tweets, cartoons and slow motion videos. It’s mostly visual and you never really know what you’ll get. It’s always interesting though and I like what he posts. It’s good creative stuff. Seth Godin. Seth writes about Marketing. I read him for motivation to get off my butt and get things done. He’s a great motivator who encourages you to think big. And do something! Ask the Pilot. Patrick Smith is a commercial airline pilot writing about the airline industry. He’s a great debunker of myths (no they don’t reduce oxygen in the cabin to keep you docile). My favorite topics include the TSA, flying myths, airport reviews and flight delays. My old favorite flight blog used to be enplaned. No one knew who wrote it. It focused on the economics of the airline industry. It was fascinating stuff. One day it was gone. The entire blog was deleted. Someone tracked down some partial archives and put them online. The Agent’s Journal. Jack Bechta is an NFL agent. He writes about the business side of the NFL, the draft and free agency. Lately he’s been writing about the potential lockout. He has a distinct lack of hype which I find very refreshing. xkcd. I call this the comic for smart people. A little math, some IT and internet privacy thrown in all make an unusual comic. Funny and intelligent.Read the article
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Aptronyms: fitting the profession to the name
- by Tony Davis
Writing a recent piece on the pains of index fragmentation, I found myself wondering why, in SQL Server, you can’t set the equivalent of a fill factor, on a heap table. I scratched my head…who might know? Phil Factor, of course! I approached him with a due sense of optimism only to find that not only did he not know, he also didn’t seem to care much either. I skulked off thinking how this may be the final nail in the coffin of nominative determinism. I’ve always wondered if there was anything in it, though. If your surname is Plumb or Leeks, is there even a tiny, extra percentage chance that you’ll end up fitting bathrooms? Some examples are quite common. I’m sure we’ve all met teachers called English or French, or lawyers called Judge or Laws. I’ve also known a Doctor called Coffin, a Urologist called Waterfall, and a Dentist called Dentith. Two personal favorites are Wolfgang Wolf who ended up managing the German Soccer team, Wolfsburg, and Edmund Akenhead, a Crossword Editor for The Times newspaper. Having forgiven Phil his earlier offhandedness, I asked him for if he knew of any notable examples. He had met the famous Dr. Batty and Dr. Nutter, both Psychiatrists, knew undertakers called Death and Stiff, had read a book by Frederick Page-Turner, and suppressed a giggle at the idea of a feminist called Gurley-Brown. He even managed to better my Urologist example, citing the article on incontinence in the British Journal of Urology (vol.49, pp.173-176, 1977) by A. J. Splatt and D. Weedon. What, however, if you were keen to gently nudge your child down the path to a career in IT? What name would you choose? Subtlety probably doesn’t really work, although in a recent interview, Rodney Landrum did congratulate PowerShell MVP Max Trinidad on being named after a SQL function. Grant “The Memory” Fritchey (OK, I made up that nickname) doesn’t do badly either. Some surnames, seem to offer a natural head start, although I know of no members of the Page-Reid clan in the profession. There are certainly families with the Table surname, although sadly, Little Bobby Tables was merely a legend by xkcd. A member of the well-known Key family would need to name their son Primary, or maybe live abroad, to make their mark. Nominate your examples of people seemingly destined, by name, for their chosen profession (extra points for IT). The best three will receive a prize. Cheers, Tony.Read the article
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Code Golf: Collatz Conjecture
- by Earlz
Inspired by http://xkcd.com/710/ here is a code golf for it. The Challenge Given a positive integer greater than 0, print out the hailstone sequence for that number. The Hailstone Sequence See Wikipedia for more detail.. If the number is even, divide it by two. If the number is odd, triple it and add one. Repeat this with the number produced until it reaches 1. (if it continues after 1, it will go in an infinite loop of 1 -> 4 -> 2 -> 1...) Sometimes code is the best way to explain, so here is some from Wikipedia function collatz(n) show n if n > 1 if n is odd call collatz(3n + 1) else call collatz(n / 2) This code works, but I am adding on an extra challenge. The program must not be vulnerable to stack overflows. So it must either use iteration or tail recursion. Also, bonus points for if it can calculate big numbers and the language does not already have it implemented. (or if you reimplement big number support using fixed-length integers) Test case Number: 21 Results: 21 -> 64 -> 32 -> 16 -> 8 -> 4 -> 2 -> 1 Number: 3 Results: 3 -> 10 -> 5 -> 16 -> 8 -> 4 -> 2 -> 1 Also, the code golf must include full user input and output.Read the article
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Executes a function until it returns a nil, collecting its values into a list
- by Baldur
I got this idea from XKCD's Hofstadter comic; what's the best way to create a conditional loop in (any) Lisp dialect that executes a function until it returns NIL at which time it collects the returned values into a list. For those who haven't seen the joke, it's goes that Douglas Hofstadter's “eight-word” autobiography consists of only six words: “I'm So Meta, Even This Acronym” containing continuation of the joke: (some odd meta-paraprosdokian?) “Is Meta” — the joke being that the autobiography is actually “I'm So Meta, Even This Acronym Is Meta”. But why not go deeper? Assume the acronymizing function META that creates an acronym from a string and splits it into words, returns NIL if the string contains but one word: (meta "I'm So Meta, Even This Acronym") ? "Is Meta" (meta (meta "I'm So Meta, Even This Acronym")) ? "Im" (meta (meta (meta "I'm So Meta, Even This Acronym"))) ? NIL (meta "GNU is Not UNIX") ? "GNU" (meta (meta "GNU is Not UNIX")) ? NIL Now I'm looking for how to implement a function so that: (so-function #'meta "I'm So Meta, Even This Acronym") ? ("I'm So Meta, Even This Acronym" "Is Meta" "Im") (so-function #'meta "GNU is Not Unix") ? ("GNU is Not Unix" "GNU") What's the best way of doing this?Read the article
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Why does jQuery fadeOut not work inside this setInterval loop?
- by Clay McClure
I'm trying to load random items into a div every few seconds, with a nice fadeOut/fadeIn transition between each load. Here's the code: <html> <body> <div id="item"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> // Load a random item var item = $('#item'); function load_item() { item.fadeOut(5000, function() { item.load('http://dynamic.xkcd.com/comic/random/ #middleContent img', null, function() { item.fadeIn(5000); }); }); }; // Load initial featured item load_item(); // Schedule repeated loading setInterval(load_item, 15000); </script> </body> </html> This works fine the first time through, but on subsequent calls to load_item, the fadeOut() seems to stop working. It doesn't actually fade the #item div out, but jumps immediately into the callback function, ignoring the 5000 delay. What am I doing wrong?Read the article
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Interpretation of range(n) and boolean list, one-to-one map, simpler?
- by HH
#!/usr/bin/python # # Description: bitwise factorization and then trying to find # an elegant way to print numbers # Source: http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=61300#p2195422 # bug with large numbers such as 99, but main point in simplifying it # def primes(n): # all even numbers greater than 2 are not prime. s = [False]*2 + [True]*2 + [False,True]*((n-4)//2) + [False]*(n%2) i = 3; while i*i < n: # get rid of ** and skip even numbers. s[i*i : n : i*2] = [False]*(1+(n-i*i)//(i*2)) i += 2 # skip non-primes while not s[i]: i += 2 return s # TRIAL: can you find a simpler way to print them? # feeling the overuse of assignments but cannot see a way to get it simpler # p = 49 boolPrimes = primes(p) numbs = range(len(boolPrimes)) mydict = dict(zip(numbs, boolPrimes)) print([numb for numb in numbs if mydict[numb]]) Something I am looking for, can you get TRIAL to be of the extreme simplicity below? Any such method? a=[True, False, True] b=[1,2,3] b_a # any such simple way to get it evaluated to [1,3] # above a crude way to do it in TRIALRead the article
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Javascript Bookmarklet - Opening Multiple Links on a Page
- by NessDan
I want to make a bookmarklet so that when I go on Digg, I can simply click it and have the top 10 stories open up in new tabs. The HTML on the page looks like this: <div id="topten-list"> <div class="news-summary img-thumb"> <h3> <a href="/comics_animation/Pokemon_COMIC">Pokemon - (COMIC) <span> <em style="background-image: url("/comics_animation/Pokemon_COMIC/a.png");"> thumb</em> </span></a> </h3> <ul class="news-digg"> <li class="digg-count"> <a href="/comics_animation/Pokemon_COMIC"> <strong>1872</strong> </a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="news-summary img-thumb"> <h3> <a href="/comedy/I_am_never_drinking_with_you_assholes_again_Pic"> I am never drinking with you assholes again [Pic] <span> <em style="background-image: url("/comedy/I_am_never_drinking_with_you_assholes_again_Pic/a.png");"> thumb</em> </span></a> </h3> <ul class="news-digg"> <li class="digg-count"> <a href="/comedy/I_am_never_drinking_with_you_assholes_again_Pic"> <strong>1650</strong> </a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="news-summary news-thumb"> <h3> <a href="/comedy/xkcd_Hell">xkcd: Hell <span> <em style="background-image: url("/comedy/xkcd_Hell/a.png");"> thumb</em> </span></a> </h3> <ul class="news-digg"> <li class="digg-count"> <a href="/comedy/xkcd_Hell"> <strong>1407</strong> </a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="news-summary news-thumb"> <h3> <a href="/arts_culture/6_Ridiculous_History_Myths_You_Probably_Think_Are_True"> 6 Ridiculous History Myths (You Probably Think Are True) <span> <em style="background-image: url("/arts_culture/6_Ridiculous_History_Myths_You_Probably_Think_Are_True/a.jpg");"> thumb</em> </span></a> </h3> <ul class="news-digg"> <li class="digg-count"> <a href="/arts_culture/6_Ridiculous_History_Myths_You_Probably_Think_Are_True"> <strong>1216</strong> </a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="news-summary news-thumb"> <h3> <a href="/people/Why_Every_Chick_Flick_Is_Starting_to_Look_The_Same_CHART"> Why Every Chick Flick Is Starting to Look The Same [CHART] <span> <em style="background-image: url("/people/Why_Every_Chick_Flick_Is_Starting_to_Look_The_Same_CHART/a.jpg");"> thumb</em> </span></a> </h3> <ul class="news-digg"> <li class="digg-count"> <a href="/people/Why_Every_Chick_Flick_Is_Starting_to_Look_The_Same_CHART"> <strong>978</strong> </a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="news-summary img-thumb"> <h3> <a href="/food_drink/WTF_World_of_FAST_FOOD_Graphic">WTF World of FAST FOOD! [Graphic] <span> <em style="background-image: url("/food_drink/WTF_World_of_FAST_FOOD_Graphic/a.jpg");"> thumb</em> </span></a> </h3> <ul class="news-digg"> <li class="digg-count"> <a href="/food_drink/WTF_World_of_FAST_FOOD_Graphic"> <strong>874</strong> </a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="news-summary news-thumb"> <h3> <a href="/people/10_Things_You_Don_t_Know_About_My_Life_As_a_Dominatrix"> 10 Things You Don't Know About My Life As a Dominatrix <span> <em style="background-image: url("/people/10_Things_You_Don_t_Know_About_My_Life_As_a_Dominatrix/a.jpg");"> thumb</em> </span></a> </h3> <ul class="news-digg"> <li class="digg-count"> <a href="/people/10_Things_You_Don_t_Know_About_My_Life_As_a_Dominatrix"> <strong>751</strong> </a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="news-summary img-thumb"> <h3> <a href="/odd_stuff/Star_Trek_Transporter_Mishap_pic">Star Trek Transporter Mishap (pic) <span> <em>thumb</em> </span></a> </h3> <ul class="news-digg"> <li class="digg-count"> <a href="/odd_stuff/Star_Trek_Transporter_Mishap_pic"> <strong>667</strong> </a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="news-summary vid-thumb"> <h3> <a href="/pc_games/StarCraft_2_Beta_Breakup_Video">StarCraft 2 Beta Breakup (Video) <span> <em style="background-image: url("/pc_games/StarCraft_2_Beta_Breakup_Video/a.jpg");"> thumb</em> </span></a> </h3> <ul class="news-digg"> <li class="digg-count"> <a href="/pc_games/StarCraft_2_Beta_Breakup_Video"> <strong>627</strong> </a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="news-summary news-thumb"> <h3> <a href="/politics/Jon_Stewart_FL_Doc_Won_t_Touch_Yr_Penis_If_You_Voted_Obama"> Jon Stewart: FL Doc Won't Touch Yr Penis If You Voted Obama <span> <em style="background-image: url("/politics/Jon_Stewart_FL_Doc_Won_t_Touch_Yr_Penis_If_You_Voted_Obama/a.jpg");"> thumb</em> </span></a> </h3> <ul class="news-digg"> <li class="digg-count"> <a href="/politics/Jon_Stewart_FL_Doc_Won_t_Touch_Yr_Penis_If_You_Voted_Obama"> <strong>508</strong> </a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> So within each div with the class "news-summary", there is a link. How can I get javascript to go through the div "topten-list" and open each one?Read the article
