Tavern on the Meta

The Mersenne twister is a pseudorandom number generator developed in 1997 by and that is based on a matrix linear recurrence over a finite binary field F_{2}. It provides for fast generation of very high-quality pseudorandom numbers, having been designed specifically to rectify many of the flaws found in older algorithms. Its name derives from the fact that period length is chosen to be a Mersenne prime. There are at least two common variants of the algorithm, differing only in the size of the Mersenne primes used. The newer and more commonly used one is the Mersenne Twister MT19937, wi...

ircmaxell

Yes, one of the sources implements the Twister (MTRand)

drachenstern

12:15 AM

@ircmaxell ah good

ircmaxell

Well, actually PHP supplies it in the core

so it just uses PHP's implementation

drachenstern

Ah even better.

ircmaxell

yeah. I'm still considering it a low strength source though

drachenstern

Anybody who doesn't know about it should be taught it in school nowadays ;) ~ I was taught it in school as an aside, because I was working on a project for a professor.

Really? That's low strength compared to other rand's?

ircmaxell

There are 2 medium strength (a COM call for windows, and /dev/urandom for *nix) and 2 high strength (a .NET call - RNGCrypto and /dev/random for *nix)

drachenstern

12:17 AM

Ahhh

How is the .NET rand? Pretty good?

I've never paid attention. I don't do crypto anything so don't really care :p

ircmaxell

The COM call doesn't appear much better than MTRand... CAPICOM.1->getRandom()

The .NET one appears to be just as good (or close enough) to /dev/random

at least based upon what I could find on the net

drachenstern

random.org?

Lance Roberts

Some bad answers here:

1

Q: Stack Overflow Etiquette: Old Posts

Scenario: You discover more information in relation to a stackoverlow post that would be useful to the community in answering your question. However, you wrote the question several days ago and it is no longer receiving additional views. Is it poor etiquette to create a new post? What are the ...

Hmmm, not sure how I phased out on Isaac's answer but it's ok.

ircmaxell

12:33 AM

@drachenstern I could if I really needed to

drachenstern

@ircmaxell I rather meant what did they say about the situation

ircmaxell

Oh, I didn't post it for review yet

I want to finsih it

drachenstern

if the COM was better than MTRand

.NET == /dev/random

etc

ircmaxell

Well, that's an assumption on my end...

I know the COM isn't much better than MTRand, but it's outside of the control of PHP, so that's why it's bumped a notch

drachenstern

So did you follow up with random.org and see if they had anything to say on the matter?

ircmaxell

12:37 AM

I'm not sure I understand what you mean

drachenstern

Have you ever read anything from random.org?

ircmaxell

yeah

drachenstern

ok then, so long as you're familiar with the site and what they're all about

ircmaxell

Yeah, I followed RFC 4086 tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4086

drachenstern

@ircmaxell cool

ircmaxell

12:44 AM

I'm trying to follow as many standards as I can

drachenstern

Nice. Good on ya.

mootinator

1:04 AM

lol

4

Procrastination

Proposed Q&A site for a group of people which will be defined later.

Currently in definition.

Tim Stone

@mootinator Maybe I'll get around to signing up after I get other stuff done.

mootinator

Current Best On-Topic Question: "What are common situa"

drachenstern

@TimStone did you have to refresh to invite me?

Fosco

Nuke this:

0

Q: Press Enter to Webbrowser (Delphi)

*hi guyz * i want to press enter for just webbrowser1 object.is that possible? i want to logging website in webbrowser so i need that. thankz helped me.

delphi post webbrowser enter

drachenstern

@Fosco With glee.

Fosco

1:12 AM

@drachenstern :)

Awesome, my rep is a palindrome... 6776

drachenstern

dumb shite I've done recently. #23423418509123485

> $(emailAddressText).val() = '';

Yeah, I have no idea what I was thinking...

mootinator

apparently proposals don't instantly go into commitment :P

drachenstern

:p

not generally, no

mootinator

77

Woodworking and Carpentry

Proposed Q&A site for the craft of chopping up pieces of dead trees into differently-shaped pieces, and boldly joining said pieces together

Currently in definition.

drachenstern

@mootinator I'm torn between upvoting good suggested questions or letting them sit at 0|0|0

@mootinator how is that not DIY?

mootinator

1:20 AM

diy is home improvement specific supposedly

drachenstern

2:52 AM

homegoing. dogwalking. foodeating.

Moshe

3:03 AM

@drachenstern - More Nippon stuff going on real soon...

Tim Stone

Ahahaha:

Someone won that by answering some Microsoft trivia question on Facebook.

Michael Petrotta

Today I saw a guy in a t-shirt with a foot-wide symbol for a transistor on the front, and that made me happy.

Tim Stone

Heh :D

drachenstern

3:31 AM

@MichaelPetrotta nice

Has anyone else seen the new DQ commercials?

Moshe

3:52 AM

Anyone have any ideas what to tell a user who scored exactly zero?

drachenstern

um.

Moshe

That works.

Hehe

drachenstern

lol

What are you thinking to tell them?

I think it should be an easter egg myself

it's tricky to hit exactly zero

<-- would know

Moshe

Heh. Is there an appropriate XKCD or something?

I could show that...

drachenstern

no

Moshe

3:57 AM

I could make that an achievement.

drachenstern

don't use someone else's work in your app without express written consent. You're making money off this app. I don't think Randall would appreciate that.

Moshe

i would definitely ask first

drachenstern

But I don't think there's such an XKCD

Moshe

I should gave clarified before I said that.

drachenstern

or PennyArcade (which would be closer)

Moshe

3:58 AM

Ok.

Is that an off topic programmers question?

"what Easter egg would you use here?"

drachenstern

It's rather localized.

I would generalize it to: "Given a strategically difficult target to hit (a score of zero), what would be an appropriate award and/or easter egg?" and tag it for iPhone... probably on gamedev if not P.SE

and title it "Easter eggs or Achievements?

idk, that's how I would generalize it, what do you think?

Moshe

@drachenstern Sounds good.

Okay, ready for the next beta build. It's not feature-complete as per my spec, but it's more polished...

drachenstern

4:16 AM

That's good progress.

Moshe

Yea, writing up the release notes.

Uploading....

@RebeccaChernoff - For the record, I don't seem to have gotten an email yet.

drachenstern

You know, emailing her would be faster

Moshe

@TylerChacha - How's your robotics coming along?

Tyler Chacha

Good

Competition tomorrow

Moshe

@TylerChacha The competition you've been working towards?

Rebecca Chernoff

4:27 AM

@Moshe sent 12 hours ago.

Tyler Chacha

one of three

Moshe

@RebeccaChernoff moshefromsinai

at gmail?

@TylerChacha When are the others? Do you automatically qualify for all three?

Rebecca Chernoff

@Moshe aye

Tyler Chacha

yes, these are all regionals

Rebecca Chernoff

I just copied from your MSO profile.

Tyler Chacha

4:28 AM

finals is in like a month

drachenstern

Yay @TylerChacha woohoo

@RebeccaChernoff but but but how dare you :p

^^^^joke

Moshe

Oh. ok.

once again spoke without thinking.

Rebecca Chernoff

are you sure you're receiving mail |:

Moshe

yea

hang on

@RebeccaChernoff You're gonna love this:

Rebecca Chernoff

Somehow I doubt that...

Tim Stone

4:34 AM

Is "this" chocolate french toast?

Rebecca Chernoff

lol

Moshe

Rebecca Chernoff

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

drachenstern

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! indeed!

Tim Stone

Unacceptable!

Moshe

4:36 AM

23 hours ago, by Rebecca Chernoff

I am not spam! ):

Tim Stone

She even confirmed it ahead of time, and your mail didn't listen. shakes head

Moshe

hang on, phone

drachenstern

tsk tsk tsk mail

Rebecca Chernoff

Is that grounds for revoking t-shirt offer? (;

Moshe

back

Tim Stone

4:39 AM

@RebeccaChernoff That seems like a waste of a t-shirt. The rest of us will just share it or something, instead.

drachenstern

@RebeccaChernoff idk, is it a 2x tshirt?

Moshe

@RebeccaChernoff Is what grounds for a revocation? My phone call or my email client?

Mark Elliot

anyone know how to delete a careers page?

Moshe

@MarkElliot Is it your careers page?

drachenstern

@MarkElliot I think we do have someone here who knows something about that

Mark Elliot

4:41 AM

yep

Tim Stone

I'd be a little surprised if he was trying to delete someone else's Careers page... :P

Mark Elliot

my open ids somehow split, and i had a dupe page

turns out I had both /mark-elliot and /markelliot

Moshe

@RebeccaChernoff - About the shirt size... I don't know much about that except that t-shirts make me look fat. I usually wear button-downs.

Mark Elliot

i've taken down /markelliot since I found the problem

drachenstern

@Moshe they make everyone look fat in general. Welcome to the party.

Moshe

4:44 AM

@drachenstern I don't know why, but I read that, "Welcome to the third party".

drachenstern

@Moshe I would say "wha" but that wouldn't help

Rebecca Chernoff

@Moshe I cannot help you select a size. Use the chart. shrugs

Tim Stone

@MarkElliot Ah, that sucks. For my part, I haven't messed around with Careers too much, so I'm not sure about page deletion.

Moshe

@RebeccaChernoff - Ok, I'm responding to the email. (I wonder if jQuery can help me choose a size...)

Mark Elliot

@TimStone supposedly you can delete it from the non-existent "My Account" page

drachenstern

4:46 AM

@RebeccaChernoff do you know?

Mark Elliot

I suppose since I've made it non-public and killed the public URL it's basically hidden

but it seems to me I ought to be able to just toss the thing

Rebecca Chernoff

careers@stackoverflow.com

Mark Elliot

mmkay

Rebecca Chernoff

(I have no idea if you can do it or not, I really haven't played around on careers)

wanders off to tell gmail to send emails from @Moshe directly to spam q:

Moshe

wanders off to create a PHP mailer scriop to send @RebeccaChernoff emails from herself - but remembers that he's in the middle of writing an email

drachenstern

4:50 AM

@Moshe I bet their email server would kick those.

Moshe

Wait, I can shrink tees in the wash, right?

drachenstern

Depends if they're preshrunk

sometimes yes, sometimes no

Mark Elliot

@RebeccaChernoff sent.

Moshe

@RebeccaChernoff - Are they preshrunk?

Tyler Chacha

Hey, a little token of gratitude for the people at Meta that have really made this place awesome. Thanks. chacha102.com/thanks

11

Moshe

4:54 AM

@TylerChacha Pin that, nice.

drachenstern

has that always been there?

or is Jin playing with the CSS? It just looks funny

Moshe

@drachenstern - the borders?

drachenstern

I guess

I guess I mean the white by white.

seems like there should be a gutter there

Tim Stone

@TylerChacha Thank you for the Tavern, and Muffin Cat, and so on and so forth. That was nice.

@drachenstern That was so about 21 hours ago. :P

drachenstern

ok, so it did change. Thanks.

I just realized.

are they really remaking nikita again?

Tim Stone

5:00 AM

@drachenstern It's supposed to have a transparent background, apparently that update hasn't been deployed yet.

drachenstern

looks like the same thing is on meta

Moshe

@RebeccaChernoff - Sent.

@drachenstern - What do you think of the new icon?

Tim Stone

@drachenstern Yeah, I told Jin I was skeptical of this change, heh.

drachenstern

I prefer the old one.

keep innovating tho

Moshe

I changed because the color will hopefully attract people. As you said, the old one was bland.

drachenstern

5:02 AM

when is jeff gonna change the unanswered to review?

Moshe

What do you not like about it?

drachenstern

It's a very bad play on the Japanese flag

Moshe

Well, kinda.

Heh. I hear that.

I need some "photoshoppy" Sushi, but I didn't figure out how to draw it yet.

I am thinking a square piece of Maki for the icon, but I can't get it right.

I'm going with the notion that this color will get people to give the app a second glance. Red is a bright color.

But this is not an ideal icon, per sé.

Ok, I'm off to bed.

drachenstern

My advice? Go order some at a restaurant and take a bit of time to photo some of it ;)

Then you have an excellent example

Moshe

Interesting.

drachenstern

5:06 AM

It's about sushi, use the color called salmon

Moshe

I actually filmed a 2 hour speech today on my iPhone, now that you mention it.

drachenstern

Salmon (color)

Salmon is a range of pale pinkish-orange to light pink colors, named after the color of salmon flesh. Actual salmon color varies from almost white to deep red, depending on their levels of the carotenoid astaxanthin due to how rich a diet of krill and shrimp the fish feeds on; the salmon raised on fish farms are given artificial coloring in their food. Light salmon The web color light salmon is displayed at the right. Salmon The web color salmon is displayed at the right. The first recorded use of salmon as a color name in English was in 1776. Dark salmon The web color dark sa...

@Moshe oO

Tyler Chacha

I have a Salmon Colored Shirt

Moshe

I propped the iPhone against a large bottle. The sound is okay and the video is awesome.

drachenstern

@TylerChacha hehe

Moshe

5:07 AM

@TylerChacha @TylerChacha - But do you have a soon-to-be salmon-colored game?

Tyler Chacha

@Moshe When I went to the Apple store, I pulled up your game on all the iPads and iPhones before I left

Partially because I was bored waiting for help

Moshe

@TylerChacha Thanks, seems I'm not the only one who did that then.

@TylerChacha You had to wait in the Apple Store?

I never heard of that before.

By the way, one downside of filming with the iPhone is that there's a file size limit. After about 40-50 minutes, you have to hit record again.

But the video quality is great.

Now, really: Good night!

closes safari, closes MacBook, [does other stuff] ,closes eyes

drachenstern

oh my word!

stackoverflow.com/posts/5251647/edit

I'm a flagging voting fool

And I haz a new silver badge :D

stackoverflow.com/badges/805/sportsmanship?userid=109749

Mark Elliot

5:30 AM

yay, success: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/82123/…

drachenstern

Ok folks. I've edited about 25 posts over SO and dba, voted till I'm out on two sites, and modded my site. I'm out.

Tim Post

I hate it when I forget to bookmark stuff

Saw this cool velociraptor image and roar mp3 that slid across the display after a time delay and now I can't find it

I'm making a series of exceptionally and intentionally annoying pages

Reno

google notebook was really good

(it can bookmark google search links) . I think they've stopped accepting new users

Tim Stone

5:56 AM

3

A: Give a hint to low-rep question askers when editing answers

We are now disallowing answer edits in this specific situation: You are a new, VERY low rep user You own the question You are attempting to edit an answer to your question Bear in mind that comment boxes are pre-expanded for new users on their own questions (and users with even 1 rep can comm...