Programmer Humor

In 1870 Émile Baudot created a code for telegraphy that used bits in place of dot and dashes. That allowed more words per minute to be transmitted than was possible with morse code.

With Baudot code machines could be built that would automatically decode the signal and type it out as plain english. This technology would be called the teletype machine.

Teletype machines still used this code or variation until they were replaced over a century later.

This is also where the term Baud rate comes from.

I learned about this from Matt Parker's Stand-Up Maths channel. It was originally conceived as a counterexample, a sorting algorithm that was obviously broken, but it does actually sort correctly. The algorithm:

for i = 1 to n do  
	for j = 1 to n do  
		if A[i] < A[j] then  
			swap A[i] and A[j]  

It has a few quirks (like j accessing elements outside of i's range, and the A[i] < A[j] comparator being backward) that should break it, but they all work together to make the algorithm correctly (if inefficiently) sort the input.

paper describing the algorithm in more detail.

Source: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@mjp/117187224540318775

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/55830815

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world/p/2324999/buy-more-storage-for-only-1999-a-month

By @Enalys@mastodon.zergy.net

Crossposted from https://lemmy.world/post/51201536

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/51095100

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/51089015

cross-posted from: https://piefed.zip/c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world/p/1758477/using-fascist-technology-to-fight-fascism-still-promotes-fascist-technology

Using fascist technology to fight fascism still promotes fascist technology.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/43600018

(source: random internets photo)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50972557

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50893918