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A comment on One Million Checkboxes. Parent comment

Re:One Million Checkboxes by crdrost on Wednesday June 26, 2024 @08:35PM (#40806131)
This problem is traditionally solved by attempting to teach the aliens how to decode the pattern inside the pattern itself. For example a rendering might look like

    x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
    x _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x
    x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
    x _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x
    x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
    x _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x
    x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
    x _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x
    x _ _ x _ x _ x x x _ x _ x _ _ x _ x _ x x x _ x _ x _ _ x
    x _ _ x _ x _ x _ _ _ x _ x _ _ x _ x _ x _ x _ x _ x _ _ x
    x _ _ x x x _ x x _ _ x x x _ _ x x x _ x _ x _ x _ x _ _ x
    x _ _ x _ x _ x _ _ _ _ x _ _ _ _ x _ _ x _ x _ x _ x _ _ x
    x _ _ x _ x _ x x x _ _ x _ _ _ _ x _ _ x x x _ x x x _ _ x
    x _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x
    x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
    x _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x
    x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
    x _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x
    x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
    x _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x
    x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
The idea is that the aliens can figure out first that these opening and closing sections have periodicity 30, and because they are so repetitive they do not contain the actual data bits, but then there is a central section which does contain complexity.

So then they will hopefully alight upon the idea of looking at the code two-dimensionally, and adjust their browser width until the lines all line up, at which point they get the custom message.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Million Checkboxes by sillysaurusx on Wednesday June 26, 2024 @10:48PM (#40806727)
How long did you spend crafting this comment? Be honest.

I could imagine doing that with Vim, but I don’t think I could do it in less than ten minutes. And then I’d get sidetracked about whether to represent empty checkboxes with _ or - or a Unicode box.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Million Checkboxes by boomskats on Thursday June 27, 2024 @04:13AM (#40808437)
Thank you so much for this. I wonder, at a global level, how many potentially productive man-minutes will be wasted thanks to your comment.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Million Checkboxes by ultracakebakery on Thursday June 27, 2024 @06:41AM (#40809085)
I thought the same thing
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Million Checkboxes by anon533783 on Thursday June 27, 2024 @08:42AM (#40809856) 

    ┌───────────────────────┐
    │ https://asciiflow.com │
    └───────────────────────┘
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Million Checkboxes by djha-skin on Thursday June 27, 2024 @11:28AM (#40811592)
https://github.com/vim-scripts/DrawIt
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Million Checkboxes by kangalioo on Thursday June 27, 2024 @02:28PM (#40813502)
Can be pretty fast if you know your tools well :)

Just tried in VSCode; 2:38min using its fabulous multiline editing. 1:34min on second try due to practice

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Million Checkboxes by pavel_lishin on Wednesday June 26, 2024 @09:18PM (#40806365)
Wouldn't it be slightly simpler to use a prime number of rows and columns?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Million Checkboxes by crdrost on Wednesday June 26, 2024 @10:15PM (#40806596)
Slightly, yes! The Arecibo message was 73×23 bits, with the hope that the aliens would break lines after 23 bits. But,

    i f . t h e s 
    n e i l a . e
    s . l i k e .
    o r t s u o b
    p h e d o n .
    w . r e d r o
    e . a r e . k
    c s . a d n i
    r e w e d . o
    a . e h t . n
    r e c i b o .
    e g a s s e m
    . a n y w a y
and that's to say nothing of spiraling orders etc.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Million Checkboxes by defrost on Wednesday June 26, 2024 @10:27PM (#40806636)
Not enough boustrophedon order comments on HN, congrats.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Million Checkboxes by eru on Thursday June 27, 2024 @12:28AM (#40807221)
I like 'conventional' order, and I could figure out your message block.

Give the aliens some credit, they might figure it out.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Million Checkboxes by madcaptenor on Thursday June 27, 2024 @09:31AM (#40810309)
IIRC these messages usually have their dimensions equal to primes, to help the aliens a little bit - for example the Arecibo message was 1679 = 73 * 23 bits. We're hoping the aliens have the sense to recognize a product of two primes.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Million Checkboxes by shaftway on Thursday June 27, 2024 @02:26PM (#40813486)
If you used a prime number instead of 30 (e.g. 29) then the aliens would spend less time checking the factors of 30 (15, 10, 6, 5, 3, 2).
[ Parent | on HN ]