The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Mememaster:
Allan Olesen:
In my opinion, the all to elaborate way to accomplish the zero-padding is not a WTF.
But having a function which at a short glance can be seen to return 1, 2, 3... 10, 11, December IS a WTF.

How can a mistake like that go unnoticed by the programmer who wrote it, unless he worked in a programming environment with less than 4 code lines visible on screen. ?
Yeah, everyone knows that the function should return Apples, 1, 2, 3... 10, 11, SHIVA_NOT_FOUND. At least in inhabited solar systems with no cold fusion systems.

There can only be two...a Mememaster, and a Memepprentice. It's clear that Darth DooDoo is the apprentice.

The Enterpriser · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

boog:
The Enterpriser:
"The Daily Small Mistake"
it's a bug, the code is poor, but its not a wtf.
As far as I'm concerned, any practice that would cause a generally-decent programmer to exclaim/inquire "WTF?" deserves to be on this site, small mistake or not.

The original programmer used a freakin' switch-case to zero-pad a number, and he couldn't even get that right. If you think that's not so bad, then I don't ever want to maintain code you've written.

Similarly, if something as simple as incorrect use of a switch really blows your mind to the point where you think "what the f£*?", then I suspect I'd only be one of a very very long list of people who's code you would not be able to maintain. I believe I've still got some Hello World samples lying around somewhere.. maybe that is more at your level?

There is a difference between something being wrong and something being unexplainable. 'wtf' is for the latter.

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

causa:
Expressing a number in some other base does not make it a different number. That at least should be obvious. If I wrote "ten, base 8", it would be "12" which would still be "ten".

At last, someone who gets it. "Ten" is a quantity, an integer that is bigger than "nine" and smaller than "eleven". You can represent "ten" an infinite number of ways. You can write "one zero" in situations where the base is assumed to be ten. You can write "T E N" or "five plus five" or "octal 12" or "the square root of one hundred" -- however you express it you're still talking about "ten" and the number (or solution to the calculation, if a calculation is used) is still pronounced "ten".

So, "012" (in languages where a leading zero means octal) is pronounced "ten".

Captain Oblivious · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

0 yeah:
causa:
Expressing a number in some other base does not make it a different number. That at least should be obvious. If I wrote "ten, base 8", it would be "12" which would still be "ten".
At last, someone who gets it. "Ten" is a quantity, an integer that is bigger than "nine" and smaller than "eleven". You can represent "ten" an infinite number of ways. You can write "one zero" in situations where the base is assumed to be ten. You can write "T E N" or "five plus five" or "octal 12" or "the square root of one hundred" -- however you express it you're still talking about "ten" and the number (or solution to the calculation, if a calculation is used) is still pronounced "ten".
So, "012" (in languages where a leading zero means octal) is pronounced "ten".

Unfortunately, the original joke which has the integer seven cannibalizing the integer nine is weak to start with, and combining it with "There are 10 types of people in the world" doesn't make it any better.

How many people with A.D.D. does it take to screw in a light bulb? Fou...Let's go ride bikes!

Captain Oblivious · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

0 yeah:
causa:
Expressing a number in some other base does not make it a different number. That at least should be obvious. If I wrote "ten, base 8", it would be "12" which would still be "ten".
At last, someone who gets it. "Ten" is a quantity, an integer that is bigger than "nine" and smaller than "eleven". You can represent "ten" an infinite number of ways. You can write "one zero" in situations where the base is assumed to be ten. You can write "T E N" or "five plus five" or "octal 12" or "the square root of one hundred" -- however you express it you're still talking about "ten" and the number (or solution to the calculation, if a calculation is used) is still pronounced "ten".
So, "012" (in languages where a leading zero means octal) is pronounced "ten".

Unfortunately, the original joke which has the integer seven cannibalizing the integer nine is weak to start with, and combining it with "There are 10 types of people in the world" doesn't make it any better.

How many people with A.D.D. does it take to screw in a light bulb? Fou...Let's go ride bikes!

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

0 yeah:
causa:
Expressing a number in some other base does not make it a different number. That at least should be obvious. If I wrote "ten, base 8", it would be "12" which would still be "ten".
At last, someone who gets it. "Ten" is a quantity, an integer that is bigger than "nine" and smaller than "eleven". You can represent "ten" an infinite number of ways. You can write "one zero" in situations where the base is assumed to be ten. You can write "T E N" or "five plus five" or "octal 12" or "the square root of one hundred" -- however you express it you're still talking about "ten" and the number (or solution to the calculation, if a calculation is used) is still pronounced "ten".
So, "012" (in languages where a leading zero means octal) is pronounced "ten".

No. You are talking about the same amount, to be sure, but you pronounce "10" and "012" different because they are different representations. Unless, of course, you intent to confuse the heck out of everyone else. For example, how do you pronounce these two numbers: 0x0a and 0x10? (in languages where a leading zero followed by "x" means hexadecimal)

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

octavius:
0 yeah:
causa:
Expressing a number in some other base does not make it a different number. That at least should be obvious. If I wrote "ten, base 8", it would be "12" which would still be "ten".
At last, someone who gets it. "Ten" is a quantity, an integer that is bigger than "nine" and smaller than "eleven". You can represent "ten" an infinite number of ways. You can write "one zero" in situations where the base is assumed to be ten. You can write "T E N" or "five plus five" or "octal 12" or "the square root of one hundred" -- however you express it you're still talking about "ten" and the number (or solution to the calculation, if a calculation is used) is still pronounced "ten".
So, "012" (in languages where a leading zero means octal) is pronounced "ten".

No. You are talking about the same amount, to be sure, but you pronounce "10" and "012" different because they are different representations. Unless, of course, you intent to confuse the heck out of everyone else. For example, how do you pronounce these two numbers: 0x0a and 0x10? (in languages where a leading zero followed by "x" means hexadecimal)

But you pronounce read and red the same and they're different representations of different words...

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Defendor:
How can this even be a WTF? The editors are either starting to slack off or just bored.

I believe it achieved WTF status because the programmer was using a switch to convert a number into itself... and still managed to screw that up magnificently.

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

octavius:
0 yeah:
causa:
Expressing a number in some other base does not make it a different number. That at least should be obvious. If I wrote "ten, base 8", it would be "12" which would still be "ten".
At last, someone who gets it. "Ten" is a quantity, an integer that is bigger than "nine" and smaller than "eleven". You can represent "ten" an infinite number of ways. You can write "one zero" in situations where the base is assumed to be ten. You can write "T E N" or "five plus five" or "octal 12" or "the square root of one hundred" -- however you express it you're still talking about "ten" and the number (or solution to the calculation, if a calculation is used) is still pronounced "ten".
So, "012" (in languages where a leading zero means octal) is pronounced "ten".

No. You are talking about the same amount, to be sure, but you pronounce "10" and "012" different because they are different representations. Unless, of course, you intent to confuse the heck out of everyone else. For example, how do you pronounce these two numbers: 0x0a and 0x10? (in languages where a leading zero followed by "x" means hexadecimal)

"eleven" and "ten". It matters not your finger count depending on which base you use.

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Also missing Undecember (month 13)

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Really? Which one is "eleven"? And how would you pronounce 0x11?

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Abso:
Really? Which one is "eleven"? And how would you pronounce 0x11?

Gah. Meant to quote causa's claim that 0x0a and 0x10 are pronounced "eleven" and "ten". Sorry.

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

causa:
octavius:
0 yeah:
causa:
Expressing a number in some other base does not make it a different number. That at least should be obvious. If I wrote "ten, base 8", it would be "12" which would still be "ten".
At last, someone who gets it. "Ten" is a quantity, an integer that is bigger than "nine" and smaller than "eleven". You can represent "ten" an infinite number of ways. You can write "one zero" in situations where the base is assumed to be ten. You can write "T E N" or "five plus five" or "octal 12" or "the square root of one hundred" -- however you express it you're still talking about "ten" and the number (or solution to the calculation, if a calculation is used) is still pronounced "ten".
So, "012" (in languages where a leading zero means octal) is pronounced "ten".

No. You are talking about the same amount, to be sure, but you pronounce "10" and "012" different because they are different representations. Unless, of course, you intent to confuse the heck out of everyone else. For example, how do you pronounce these two numbers: 0x0a and 0x10? (in languages where a leading zero followed by "x" means hexadecimal)
"eleven" and "ten". It matters not your finger count depending on which base you use.

Are you sure they're not pronounced "ten" and "sixteen"?

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

TRWTF is human readable dates using all numbers in mm/dd/yyyy.

hatterson · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Everyone:
Anonymous:
@Deprecated:
TRWTF is writing the octal number '08'. That must be one of those imaginary numbers, like eleventeen or thirty-twelve.
Why wasn't octal 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 10 11!
[Stony silence]
Yep, that's exactly the same response this joke gets IRL. I once got a chuckle of out of a Math major, but I think it was out of pity.

I actually laughed out loud at work and got a couple weird looks...then I tried to explain it to my coworkers and the looks didn't stop...

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

How about this: "10" in whatever base -> "zeroteen" or "oteen" or "aughteen" or similar "11" -> "oneteen" or similar "12" -> "twoteen" or "doteen" or "dupteen" "A" -> "ten" "B" -> "eleven" "C" -> "twelve" "D" -> ? (make up something that fits) "E" -> ? etc... How far would we really want to go with this, as you can go on forever if your radix is something monstrous like a million, besides the confusion about seeing "A" and saying "ten", etc.

Personally, I prefer to use "ten" to mean "10" (not 9+1) and say "ten base eight" or "ten binary" when referring to "10" in non-decimal radixes. I think this fits more comfortably because we are used to seeing "10" and saying "ten". Though I generally don't say "one hundred binary", but instead say "one-oh-oh binary" or "one-zero-zero binary" (and similar for larger numbers in other bases).
OTOH, how often do we ever really read out non-decimal numbers when referring to actual values? Practically never. The only times I can think of that it would ever come up are mathematicians studying the properties of representing numbers in alternative radixes, or programmers working with numbers that are written for display in binary, octal or hexadecimal because it is a convenient way to see what the bits of the integer are (more common on embedded systems or lower level code because they care more). (or people trying to make jokes by talking about numbers in other radixes)

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Abso:
Really? Which one is "eleven"? And how would you pronounce 0x11?

Seventeen. Don't be asa010.

hatterson · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

0 yeah:
causa:
Expressing a number in some other base does not make it a different number. That at least should be obvious. If I wrote "ten, base 8", it would be "12" which would still be "ten".
At last, someone who gets it. "Ten" is a quantity, an integer that is bigger than "nine" and smaller than "eleven". You can represent "ten" an infinite number of ways. You can write "one zero" in situations where the base is assumed to be ten. You can write "T E N" or "five plus five" or "octal 12" or "the square root of one hundred" -- however you express it you're still talking about "ten" and the number (or solution to the calculation, if a calculation is used) is still pronounced "ten".
So, "012" (in languages where a leading zero means octal) is pronounced "ten".

"Ten" is merely an English word used to represent the concept of a number. Or is "Ten" a word used to represent "10" easier than saying "One Zero"?

We could debate that pointlessness all day however given the familiarity (or lack thereof) of the majority of English speakers with different bases, groups that hold to either position are in the vast minortiy as compared with the group of people whose response is "What?"

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

De:
TRWTF is dates not using all numbers in mm/dd/yyyy.

FTFY

boog · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

The Enterpriser:
Similarly, if something as simple as incorrect use of a switch really blows your mind to the point where you think "what the f£*?"...

Actually, today's CodeSOD showed correct switch usage (see?). Using a switch to zero-pad a number, on the other hand, is just idiotic. I'm left wondering WTF the programmer was thinking (didn't he notice a pattern as he was writing the code?). I certainly don't recall saying that it blew my mind, but don't let that stop you from putting words in my mouth.

The Enterpriser:
...then I suspect I'd only be one of a very very long list of people who's code you would not be able to maintain.

I think the almost-6 years of code/stories submitted daily to this site is evidence enough that there is a very very long list of people whose code I'd prefer not to maintain. I'm glad you know where you fall.

The Enterpriser:
I believe I've still got some Hello World samples lying around somewhere.. maybe that is more at your level?

Sure, send them. I could use a laugh. Sadly I threw out all my Hello World samples way back when I realized how stupid I'd have to be to save them.

The Enterpriser:
There is a difference between something being wrong and something being unexplainable. 'wtf' is for the latter.

I would argue that WTF is for either. There are many things that are certainly explainable, yet unquestionably fit into the WTF category. But I suppose I just hold higher standards for simplicity in the code I maintain.

Maurits · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

causa:
Abso:
Really? Which one is "eleven"? And how would you pronounce 0x11?
Seventeen. Don't be asa010.

asi011, surely.

hatterson · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

The Enterpriser:
boog:
The Enterpriser:
"The Daily Small Mistake"
it's a bug, the code is poor, but its not a wtf.
As far as I'm concerned, any practice that would cause a generally-decent programmer to exclaim/inquire "WTF?" deserves to be on this site, small mistake or not.

The original programmer used a freakin' switch-case to zero-pad a number, and he couldn't even get that right. If you think that's not so bad, then I don't ever want to maintain code you've written.

Similarly, if something as simple as incorrect use of a switch really blows your mind to the point where you think "what the f£*?", then I suspect I'd only be one of a very very long list of people who's code you would not be able to maintain. I believe I've still got some Hello World samples lying around somewhere.. maybe that is more at your level?

There is a difference between something being wrong and something being unexplainable. 'wtf' is for the latter.

"wtf" can be used in many circumstances.

Sometimes it's "wtf is this mess, it's impossible to understand" Sometimes it's "wtf was the developer thinking, this is hard to maintain" Sometimes it's "wtf this is really stupid" Sometimes it's "wtf, why would he write this?" Sometimes it's a loud exclamation Sometimes it's said with a bewildered stare Sometimes it's said as a sigh while facepalming.

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Reminds me of what we used to say (in the 70's, doing AI research for DARPA):

"Simple code, simple mind."

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

causa:
Abso:
Really? Which one is "eleven"? And how would you pronounce 0x11?
Seventeen. Don't be asa010.

My apologies. You're right. I should be less asa-eight.

And since converting between bases in your head when you read/write numbers is so easy and not at all prone to errors, of course it's what we should all do.

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Dr. Evil:
Anonymous:
causa:
Anonymous:
causa:
Here we go now:
Izhido:
Anonymous:
@Deprecated:
TRWTF is writing the octal number '08'. That must be one of those imaginary numbers, like eleventeen or thirty-twelve.
Why wasn't octal 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 10 11!

Somebody care to explain the joke to me?
Hint 1: read the joke out loud. Hint 2: Octal 10 is not pronounced "ten".

Apparently the poster doesn't understand the joke either. If he did, he would have said "was" instead of wasn't.

What a dumbass.
So that's why it never gets a laugh - nobody actually understands it!

The original joke is: "why was six afraid of seven - because seven ate nine".

The octal version is: "why wasn't octal six afraid of seven - because seven ten eleven".

Do you understand it now or should I talk even slower for you? Dumbass indeed, well said.
Translated Quote: I simply don't understand this joke.
So you don't understand, that's absolutely fine, but it doesn't change anything and it doesn't re-write the joke. I've explained it to you perfectly well, if you still don't get it then you're better off just forgetting about it. I knew it was a lousy joke but come on, this is ridiculous.

You are right, the joke is more of an "aha!" and less funny. You did explain it right, and to beat this dead horse for the dumbasses who insist on refusing to understand octal numbers is rather pointless.

6 is not afraid!!! There will be no eating tonight!!!

Dear Anonymous,

In case you can’t tell, this is a grown-up place. The fact that you insist on using your ridiculous number bases clearly shows that you’re too young and too stupid to be telling jokes.

Go away and grow up.

Sincerely, Bert Glanstron

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Bert Glanstron:
Dr. Evil:
Anonymous:
causa:
Anonymous:
causa:
Here we go now:
Izhido:
Anonymous:
@Deprecated:
TRWTF is writing the octal number '08'. That must be one of those imaginary numbers, like eleventeen or thirty-twelve.
Why wasn't octal 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 10 11!

Somebody care to explain the joke to me?
Hint 1: read the joke out loud. Hint 2: Octal 10 is not pronounced "ten".

Apparently the poster doesn't understand the joke either. If he did, he would have said "was" instead of wasn't.

What a dumbass.
So that's why it never gets a laugh - nobody actually understands it!

The original joke is: "why was six afraid of seven - because seven ate nine".

The octal version is: "why wasn't octal six afraid of seven - because seven ten eleven".

Do you understand it now or should I talk even slower for you? Dumbass indeed, well said.
Translated Quote: I simply don't understand this joke.
So you don't understand, that's absolutely fine, but it doesn't change anything and it doesn't re-write the joke. I've explained it to you perfectly well, if you still don't get it then you're better off just forgetting about it. I knew it was a lousy joke but come on, this is ridiculous.

You are right, the joke is more of an "aha!" and less funny. You did explain it right, and to beat this dead horse for the dumbasses who insist on refusing to understand octal numbers is rather pointless.

6 is not afraid!!! There will be no eating tonight!!!
Dear Anonymous,

In case you can’t tell, this is a grown-up place. The fact that you insist on using your ridiculous number bases clearly shows that you’re too young and too stupid to be telling jokes.

Go away and grow up.

Sincerely, Bert Glanstron

Hey Bert! Where've you been buddy?

boog · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

The Enterpriser:
Reminds me of what we used to say (in the 70's, doing AI research for DARPA):
"Simple code, simple mind."

Right. Because business software has so much in common with AI.

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Embedded Programmer:
On an embedded computer with no filesystem, this isn't so unusual.

Maybe it's not, but I have serious doubts this is an embedded system running CF. It may be Cluster Fucked code by I doubt embedded systems run Cold Fusion.

Even if it was an embedded system, why would you suddenly change from using 2 digits to represent each month to it's name, i.e. "December"

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Abso:
Really? Which one is "eleven"? And how would you pronounce 0x11?

"B"

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

whiskeyjack:
Abso:
Really? Which one is "eleven"? And how would you pronounce 0x11?

"B"

Wait, what, no....

I meant...

Argh. It's time to go home.

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

If you keep a close eye, you see the comment count going up and down. That's the sound of BG posts getting nuked by admins with no sense of humor.

boog · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

hatterson:
"wtf" can be used in many circumstances.

Sometimes it's "wtf is this mess, it's impossible to understand"

Sometimes it's "wtf was the developer thinking, this is hard to maintain"

Sometimes it's "wtf this is really stupid"

Sometimes it's "wtf, why would he write this?"

Sometimes it's a loud exclamation

Sometimes it's said with a bewildered stare

Sometimes it's said as a sigh while facepalming. (numbers added for easy reference)

I think today's code is a 7, with a touch of 4.

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

The Enterpriser:
Reminds me of what we used to say (in the 70's, doing AI research for DARPA):
"Simple code, simple mind."

Ah yes, the golden period when computer programs were expected to be complex and users were expected to remember all that shit! Of course, MS was late by 10* years, with their ctrl-shft-f8's and whatnot.

base intentionally unspecified

If I don't specify the base, then numbers become much easier: pi is 10, e is 10, the 10th root of 10 is 10, 10 factorial is 10, the largest known prime is 10, the circumference of any circle is 10, the area and volume of any shape is 10, the velocity of light is 10, ...

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Embedded Programmer:
On an embedded computer with no filesystem, this isn't so unusual.

Rubbish. On an embedded computer with no filesystem, you make sure small numbers like 12 are stored in 1 byte, and don't use text strings like 'December' unless you HAVE to.

And if you do, you convert digits to text by adding 30H

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

boog:
The Enterpriser:
Reminds me of what we used to say (in the 70's, doing AI research for DARPA):
"Simple code, simple mind."
Right. Because business software has so much in common with AI.

That's why you have the corollary:

"Simple minds, simple applications."

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

boog:
hatterson:
"wtf" can be used in many circumstances.

Sometimes it's "wtf is this mess, it's impossible to understand"

Sometimes it's "wtf was the developer thinking, this is hard to maintain"

Sometimes it's "wtf this is really stupid"

Sometimes it's "wtf, why would he write this?"

Sometimes it's a loud exclamation

Sometimes it's said with a bewildered stare

Sometimes it's said as a sigh while facepalming. (numbers added for easy reference)
I think today's comments are a 7, with a touch of 4.

FTFY

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

causa:
octavius:
For example, how do you pronounce these two numbers: 0x0a and 0x10? (in languages where a leading zero followed by "x" means hexadecimal)
"eleven" and "ten". It matters not your finger count depending on which base you use.

Wow! Perfect example why demanding that "pronouncing" includes on-the-fly-converting-into-decimal is a very bad idea!

CAFE BABE?

(51966 and 47806 in decimal)

danixdefcon5 · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Not using DateFormat is more common than you'd think. I've stumbled upon many badly-written functions that do a poor try at formatting dates, despite the language (Java, C#, VB.net) having the ability to format it.

danixdefcon5 · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

causa:
octavius:
For example, how do you pronounce these two numbers: 0x0a and 0x10? (in languages where a leading zero followed by "x" means hexadecimal)
"eleven" and "ten". It matters not your finger count depending on which base you use.

whoa ... 0x0a is 11 base 10? I think I landed in another dimension...

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

the real wtf is definitely coldfusion. HEY GUYS, I'M A GENIUS, I MADE A NEW LANGUAGE! IT'S A TERRIBLE BASTARD CHILD OF C, VB, AND XML.

oh and will all you aspergers sufferers kindly stop arguing about a damn math/number base pun from page 1? It was funny, get the fuck over it.

there are 11 kinds of people in the world... those who support SECDED and those who don't.

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Censor:
If you keep a close eye, you see the comment count going up and down. That's the sound of BG posts getting nuked by admins with no sense of humor.

Those guys are real assholes aren't they?

boog · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

The Corrector:
boog:
hatterson:
"wtf" can be used in many circumstances.

Sometimes it's "wtf is this mess, it's impossible to understand"

Sometimes it's "wtf was the developer thinking, this is hard to maintain"

Sometimes it's "wtf this is really stupid"

Sometimes it's "wtf, why would he write this?"

Sometimes it's a loud exclamation

Sometimes it's said with a bewildered stare

Sometimes it's said as a sigh while facepalming. (numbers added for easy reference)
I think today's comments are a 7, with a touch of 4.
FTFY

I disagree. Today's comments are more of a 3.

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

"WTF! Did he code this using speech recognition?"

Callin · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 December

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Censor:
If you keep a close eye, you see the comment count going up and down. That's the sound of BG posts getting nuked by admins with no sense of repetitive idiocy.

FTFY

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

airdrik:
besides the confusion about seeing "A" and saying "ten"

What about the confusion about seeing "10" and saying "ten" instead of "one zero", which is in fact what you're seeing?

We (most of us) have learned that when we see one-zero, and we assume base ten, to pronounce that symbol "ten". If you've learned other languages or representations just as well, there's no problem seeing "0x0A" and immediately knowing that symbol means, and is pronounced, "ten".

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Small world. That's my cat's name.

2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Dave:
frits:
Here we go now:
Izhido:
Anonymous:
@Deprecated:
TRWTF is writing the octal number '08'. That must be one of those imaginary numbers, like eleventeen or thirty-twelve.
Why wasn't octal 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 10 11!

Somebody care to explain the joke to me?
Hint 1: read the joke out loud. Hint 2: Octal 10 is not pronounced "ten".

"Octal one zero"?

"Octal One Zero" is the name of my concept album about the nine layers of developer hell.

Small world. That's my cat's name.

Jaime · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

causa:
octavius:
0 yeah:
causa:
Expressing a number in some other base does not make it a different number. That at least should be obvious. If I wrote "ten, base 8", it would be "12" which would still be "ten".
At last, someone who gets it. "Ten" is a quantity, an integer that is bigger than "nine" and smaller than "eleven". You can represent "ten" an infinite number of ways. You can write "one zero" in situations where the base is assumed to be ten. You can write "T E N" or "five plus five" or "octal 12" or "the square root of one hundred" -- however you express it you're still talking about "ten" and the number (or solution to the calculation, if a calculation is used) is still pronounced "ten".
So, "012" (in languages where a leading zero means octal) is pronounced "ten".

No. You are talking about the same amount, to be sure, but you pronounce "10" and "012" different because they are different representations. Unless, of course, you intent to confuse the heck out of everyone else. For example, how do you pronounce these two numbers: 0x0a and 0x10? (in languages where a leading zero followed by "x" means hexadecimal)
"eleven" and "ten". It matters not your finger count depending on which base you use.

Then why is 0xDEADBEEF funny (well, at least the first time you see it)? I remember one time reading a COM error code from a crashed computer to a co-worker across the room who was going to Google it. It sure was easier to read 800A03EC and have him type it than first converting it to 2148140012 (or is it -2146827284?) and having him convert it back to type it.

Sometimes the presentation is more important than the value. Sometimes what seems like a single hex value is actually a string of coded ASCII characters and the decimal value is actually incorrect. BTW, that string of ASCII character is much easier to pick out in hex than in decimal.

To the question, "how do you say 0x0a?", I answer "Zero A, hex", which is as correct as "ten", but hasn't destroyed any information in the process.

pkmnfrk · 2010-10-13 Reply Admin

Of all the things to be pedantic about today...

10:
The Enterpriser:
Reminds me of what we used to say (in the 70's, doing AI research for DARPA):
"Simple code, simple mind."

Ah yes, the golden period when computer programs were expected to be complex and users were expected to remember all that shit! Of course, MS was late by 10* years, with their ctrl-shft-f8's and whatnot.

base intentionally unspecified

If I don't specify the base, then numbers become much easier: pi is 10, e is 10, the 10th root of 10 is 10, 10 factorial is 10, the largest known prime is 10, the circumference of any circle is 10, the area and volume of any shape is 10, the velocity of light is 10, ...

Why do people say "velocity" when they've only ever heard "speed", and don't know the difference between the two? Is it to sound smart?

Cold Date Conversion

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