share
Meta Stack OverflowA Stack Overflow brick in the Computer History Museum wall
[+117] [100] Jeff Atwood
[2010-04-16 23:37:17]
[ discussion status-completed donation ]
[ http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/46920/a-stack-overflow-brick-in-the-computer-history-museum-wall ] [DELETED]

I'm thinking stackoverflow.com llc / inc should buy a brick in the Computer History Museum Wall [1].

It's for a noble cause -- the CHM is one of my favorite places on the planet, and the money is a non-profit donation in support of their effort to record the history of the computer.

The brick I am looking at is the Terabyte:

The wall will consist of a series of permanent high-tech plaques engraved with your message. Honor your favorite computer pioneer, recall your first technology project, or annotate any technology memory you wish to commemorate in this special area. Each engraved wall plaque will be placed in the newly remodeled entry area of the Museum, ensuring that your reminiscences will be preserved and shared for years to come.

  • Name: Terabyte
  • Price: $5000
  • Description: 8" x 8" Plaque
  • Max Lines of Text: 6
  • Max Characters per Line: 18
  • Company logo or Stock Symbol available

So, then, the question: what should our CHM plaque say?

Completed, selection made public, and payment confirmed with the Museum: Our Brick in the Computer History Museum Wall [2]. Now we wait for October to see it live!

(16) If you can put the APL character set on a brick, I bet you could reimplement SO in APL and it'd fit on that brick.... - Earlz
(2) Have you verified that both the 108 characters and the logo can be accommodated? Or will someone need to do a graphic that includes the logo and some text (then the character limit may be different - higher or lower - depending on the resolution of the engraving technology)? Is there additional cost for the logo? - Dennis Williamson
(18) I think the museum should donate this brick to you because 17,210 meta users are going to visit the museum just to see this brick. - Robert Cartaino
(5) I took me five answers to realize that the first row of numbers were only coordinates, not actual text for the brick. - Daniel Daranas
(1) I can think of one company that would be so much happier if their brick could hold seven lines of 20 characters. - Dennis Williamson
@Dennis - and that would be... ? - uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
It might be just me, but it feels kinda like buying your own hand print tile at the walk of fame. - Toad
@George: If you do the math, the result might have a familiar ring to it. - Dennis Williamson
(5) I really can't read a question with the words "brick in the (...) wall" without having that same song stuck in my head for the rest of the day. - Gnoupi
(1) @Dennis - ah. I get it now. :) - uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
The museum doesn't twit - SztupY
(5) Whatever the answer, I think it should include the 123456789012345678 numbers on it.. even if we lose a column and a row. And it must be monospaced font. - glasnt
Why nobody ever thought of Bricky Tables? '); DROP TABLE bricks;-- (in two lines, obviously). Oh I see, historical incongruence. - Francisco Presencia
[+164] [2010-04-17 01:34:21] Tamas Czinege 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com 
2
3  closed as exact
4    duplicate of
5  brick #13379001
6

(10) +1 You'd need two bricks, then. - Zach Johnson
(8) Precisely. The second brick would redirect to the first, of course. - Julian H. Lam
(62) @Julian H. Lam: Nope, the second brick has been moved to meta. - Tamas Czinege
(1) First one to make my LOL! - Lawrence Dol
(28) Isn't it sad you think of closing questions when you think of SO? - Georg Schölly
(14) I think it's great that there is so much knowledge on the SO-family that 50% of questions can be closed as duplicates. - Gnoupi
(12) @Gnoupi that statement tells me the real issue is question discoverability. - ongle
(3) To discover, you have bring up the effort to search first, though. - mafutrct
(3) @ongle: Discoverability is sometimes an issue, but at least as often it seems to be users who [don't know how|are unwilling] to search. First time is free, of course, but after that folks should take some responsibility. - dmckee
(1) Way to hijack an answer's comment thread by discussing totally off-topic usability issues :-P - Andy E
(6) @Andy I will require (pinky in mouth) 1 Million Dollars before I will return your comment thread. - ongle
what is 9001? - Lazer
(1) @eSKAy: IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAND! - Tamas Czinege
@DrJokepu: what is over nine thousand? - Lazer
(1) @eSKay: The power level, of course - Tamas Czinege
@DrJokepu: power level of whatt?? - Lazer
(1) @eSKay: youtube.com/watch?v=SiMHTK15Pik - Tamas Czinege
So, StackOverflow is PHP? stackoverflow.com/questions/13379001/1204143 - nneonneo
1
[+114] [2010-04-17 01:47:05] Nosredna 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 
3 How do I move the
4  turtle in LOGO? 
5 
6

(20) this is GENIUS! - Jeff Atwood
(11) How do I move the brick in MUSEUM? - Earlz
That is the question. - uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
(10) Seems a bit narcissistic to me. - raven
(17) @raven - As opposed to buying a $5000 brick to commemorate yourself, which is totally humble. - Super Long Names are Hilarious
@Length The brick is to commemorate the community, not any particular person. - Jonathan Sampson
2
[+114] [2010-04-17 04:07:26] user146188 
  123456789012345678
1 See:
2 http://meta.
3  stackoverflow
4   .com/
5    questions/46920 
6 for brick history

(3) I just love this one! - Vincent Robert
(7) I'm not too excited about this one - the link is only valid for so long. - uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
Absolutely brilliant. - Andrew
(4) @George, what is going to happen to the link? Surely Jeff is doing backups... - metacoder
What if the backups fail? - uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
(5) @George: What if the museum collapses? What if Atlantis rises from the ocean tomorrow and marauding merpeople reduce us to the stone age again? Gotta draw the line somewhere.... - Pops
@Pop: I'm just saying... what happens 50 years from now when people come to the museum? The joke will mean nothing if the URL is invalid. Who knows if the Internet will even exist? - uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
(7) @George: I have come from the future to find out what these URLs that you refer to are. We find them in some archeological artifacts that we have dated to approximately this period. - Dennis Williamson
@DennisWilliamson: Good one ;) - citronas
3
[+106] [2010-04-17 00:51:35] jmfsg 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2  \ji
3  /.((( 
4 (,/"(((__,--.
5    \  ) _( /{ 
6    !|| " :||

(30) +1 Nice unicorn. - waiwai933
(2) +1 "My Little Pony, My Little Pony; What does the future hold?" - Nick Dandoulakis
@waiwia Oh! I was wondering why if the SO logo had gotten a little tipsy or something... - Gordon Gustafson
+1 for the cheerful horse. - Kramii
They would engrave it in non-monospace font. :) - Tadeusz A. Kadłubowski
OMG, Unicorn(s)! Oh wait, that's what my name is stuck at over on SO, but not here. - Powerlord
This is my favourite, but I don't think the font on the brick will do justice to this masterpiece :-) - Doctor Jones
It looks like a poodle wearing a unicorn mask. (" = eyes) - Mechanical snail
4
[+101] [2010-04-16 23:40:27] Jeff Atwood

Kicking things off with my dumb suggestion.

Remember the brick is 6 lines of 18 characters!

  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 our VC asked us to
3 build a business 
4 but we spent all 
5 their money on
6 this brick instead

(7) If you go this route, why stop with just 1 brick? - Jon Seigel
(27) @jon that would be funnier -- a whole wall, 1 letter per brick, heh. - Jeff Atwood
(5) Can I buy the one under yours and put "that is one expensive brick!"? - jmfsg
(2) If you write it this way, you can avoid the hyphenated busin-ess: | StackOverflow.com | Our VC asked us to | build a business, | but we spent | all their money on | this brick. | - Robert Cartaino
@robert excellent, I reformatted it per your suggestion - Jeff Atwood
(3) 7 -- Burma Shave. - Piskvor
5
[+74] [2010-04-16 23:57:57] Bryant 
  123456789012345678
1 to ask questions 
2 is human, 
3 but 
4 to provide
5 expert answers is
6 stackoverflow.com

(1) For some reason reminds me of a slightly less sinister version of the motto from The Prisoner: i41.tinypic.com/b6udzk.png - sblair
(2) I resent this one. Stop excluding us 'free rider'-'question-askers'-'only 5 rep per upvote' users! - ripper234
Nice!!!!!!!!!!! - Lawrence Dol
(1) Consider a version of this except with "to provide expert answers." - Robert Cartaino
@ripper I took robert's advice and amended free to expert - Jeff Atwood
(4) I think it would be better without the "but". Like: "To ask questions/is human./To provide/expert answers is/stackoverflow.com". (And one line to spare.) - Arjan
@Arjan, but that completely screws up the cool way the text currently looks :) - Earlz
@Earlz, given the official examples I wouldn't rely on the looks... (And I'm not natively English, but the but actually seems wrong to me. Maybe and is better?) - Arjan
Is that an evil EE reference? - rlb.usa
@Jeff - you misunderstood me. I was, half jokingly, protesting against exclusion of great question askers. Asking great questions should not be excluded (although yes, the purpose is the answers ... but without great questions there can't be great answers ... or at least "answers to great questions". This comment will now self-terminate). - ripper234
(2) a bit marketing-y - UpTheCreek
6
[+67] [2010-04-17 02:53:03] Robert Cartaino 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com:
2 The only place
3 where you can get
4 100 answers
5 for what to write
6 on this brick.

make that 38 now... - Zach Johnson
Just to make it that much more geeky, it should be 42. - AnonJr
(9) I think it should be the actual final # of answers. - Robert Cartaino
(3) That'd be a good meta brick. - MPelletier
(25) Are there dynamic bricks? - Franz
The only way to get an accurate count would be to lock the question before engraving ;-) - Doctor Jones
7
[+66] [2010-04-17 02:06:45] TJB 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 None of us
3 Is as Dumb
4 As all of Us
5 -Jeff Atwood & 
6  Joel Spolsky

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/09/stack-overflow-none-of-us-is-as-dumb-as-all-of-us.html


(38) hmm, initially misread that as "none of us is as dumb as Jeff Atwood & Joel Spolsky" - Mark Heath
(1) That's already the subtitle for the 'Meetings' demotivational poster. Still funny though. I think of this everytime I'm in a meeting at work... or really anywhere for that matter. - Craig
8
[+54] [2010-04-17 00:58:18] Jonathan Sampson

Poetized version of Atwood's earlier answer [1].

Answered questions quick
VCs made wallets thick
Won some cash to kick some ass
But spent it on this brick.

  123456789012345678
1 Answered questions
2 quick, VCs made
3 wallets thick, Won
4 some cash to kick
5 some ass but spent
6 it on this brick

alt text

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/46920/a-stack-overflow-brick-in-the-computer-history-museum-wall/46922#46922

(2) Yo! The Beastie Boys are in the house! - Dennis Williamson
(6) it has no meter. rhythm fail. - quack quixote
(6) Sounds like it rhymes pretty well to me - perhaps it's the char-per-line restriction that is making it difficult to read? - Jonathan Sampson
"rhythm" != "rhyme". but yeah, splitting the lines differently helps. - quack quixote
9
[+46] [2010-04-17 16:36:05] Robert Cartaino [ACCEPTED] 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 Dedicated to the 
3 expert programmers
4 whose tireless
5 work made this
6 brick possible.

Stack Overflow Plaque at CHM


(2) Aw. I liked a lot others more(even being serious) :( - Earlz
(13) meta is a fine place for in-jokes, but I think when you're putting words on granite (literally or metaphorically) in a public place, it's best to play it straight, simple, and clear. - Jeff Atwood
(17) This one really stands out. If possible, I'd suggest a slight change so that the dedication is directed to the expert programmers rather than their tireless work : 3 expert programmers, 4 whose tireless, 5 work made this. - Ben McCormack
(8) Congratulations, I don't think it could possibly be more vanilla. - Won't
(1) @ben good idea -- done! - Jeff Atwood
@Mehrdad To be honest, I don't think that's a very flattering picture of the plaque - Yi Jiang
@Yi Unfortunately, it's difficult to take a photo of a reflective surface, especially when all you have is a crappy iPhone 4 camera. It's better than nothing though. Feel free to replace with a better one! By the way, you have to go upstairs to see "the wall". There's nothing else upstairs. Nobody goes there and for some unknown reasons, I felt the staff were not exactly happy about us going there. In fact, after I came down, they put a barrier ribbon to prevent people from going there. I was a bit uncomfortable about this and just wanted to take a picture ASAP and come back. - LeakyCode
@mehr this is awesome, thank you! I believe the museum is not fully 'done' with the work, the big opening is Jan 31st - Jeff Atwood
@Jeff You're welcome. Thank you for putting it there! I didn't know about the "big opening." Everywhere I saw, they mentioned last week as opening. I would've gone on the 31st if I knew it :( - LeakyCode
(1) Now can we have the closed as dupe brick? - bananakata
10
[+44] [2010-04-17 03:41:46] Oddthinking 
  123456789012345678
1 Programming Q&A;?
2 StackOverflow.com
3 has both.
4 -- Answered 2009
5 community briki
6 Jeff Atwood

(7) I confess. I only posted this to get the community briki joke in. - Oddthinking
(17) well, I LOL'ed so mission accomplished. COMMUNITY BRIKI! - Jeff Atwood
(7) I confess. I only upvoted this because the community briki joke was in. - Pops
+1 for community briki - Brian
11
[+39] [2010-04-17 14:09:06] Robert Cartaino 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 Asking 14-million
3 expert programmers
4 what to write
5 on this brick.
6 [status-completed]

Of course, we'll need the actual # of users.


@Robert the tag is [status-completed] (which fits in 18 characters) not [status-complete] - Kyle Cronin
fixed (and here's the filler to meet minimum comment size requirements). - Robert Cartaino
(3) Imho the best one ever - Pavel Shved
(2) Where does the figure of 14-million come from? (The most recent SO user id is 319,402.) - Arjan
@Arjan - Made it up. Need to know the number of unique visitors to the site; way more than 319K. - Robert Cartaino
(3) I think I should clarify why this brick is the best. It contains a reference that SO is a great and influential Q&A site. It also contains a generic joke, in addition to an inside joke; this is what many bricks here lack. - Pavel Shved
I really like it. We can get it, but anyone can enjoy it. - e-satis
12
[+34] [2010-04-17 22:30:35] Jeff Yates 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2
3 [closed]brick
4 
5 not programming
6 related

13
[+30] [2010-04-17 02:38:08] Jim McKeeth

It really should be something in code . . . and this seems like the most obvious choice:

  123456789012345678
1 /* See:
2  StackOverflow.com
3 */
4 public int Foo() {
5     return Foo();
6 }

Because of course the logical place that someone would come to figure out what that means, or how to fix it is to visit StackOverflow.com [1].

[1] http://StackOverflow.com/

(2) That's seven lines. - Dennis Williamson
(1) @Dennis, could just take the { up a line and reduce it to 6. This is actually a common(though not in C#) coding style - Earlz
Just use // for the comments and you can ditch the */ line. - chakrit
(2) Hope the edits are ok. Return type changed to int so I could fit a { and a space. Most importantly, it now fits the spec - that one guy
Thanks. That works. I changed the comments and didn't realize I added a line. - Jim McKeeth
(1) How can we be certain this won't get TCO'd to just loop forever? - SamB
14
[+27] [2010-04-17 00:50:58] Dennis Williamson 
 123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow() {
2   ask_questions;
3   get_answers;
4   rep++;
5   return profit;
6 }

(5) Bill adds ()s to all of those... - Billy ONeal
line 5 should read "return profit;" - doekman
@doekman: Thanks for the bug report. [status-completed]. - Dennis Williamson
(1) -1 for using a language that requires semi-colons. - Stefan Kendall
postincrement => not good - Vi.
I think return stackoverflow() actually. Then there it will be a stack overflow (unless you've got tail recursion). - Skilldrick
Line 5 should not be reachable. - Paul Tomblin
(1) @Paul: Why not? I profit from the answers I receive, even if only intellectually. Besides "profit" is a meme. - Dennis Williamson
(3) profit is undefined - bobobobo
Why not return stackoverflow()? - Mechanical snail
15
[+25] [2010-04-17 16:36:47] Robert Cartaino 
  123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2 Dedicated to the
3 tireless effort of
4 expert programmers
5 making this brick
6 [status-complete]

(5) I like this because it's true to the "dedication" nature of the brick, plus contains a bit of the SO purpose and an inside-meme, to boot. - Robert Cartaino
(1) By all my powers I have just made up, I hereby pronounce you the best brickmaker ever. - Pavel Shved
(1) This is nice - punny, on-message, in-jokey, and awesome. - Paul Nathan
16
[+23] [2010-04-20 18:00:57] perbert 
  123456789012345678
1 ___|_____|_____|__
2 |_____|_____|_____
3 ___|_____|_____|__
4 |_____|_____|_____
5 ___|_____|_____|__
6 |_____|_____|_____

It's just another brick in the wall.


(1) Nice, but you know some do better. ;-) - Arjan
(2) @Arjan: tell Jeff to get us kbd back, and I'll try. - perbert
You didn't seem to need kbd to restore that image after Jeff took kbd away! - Arjan
+1 for the Pink Floyd reference - Jefffrey
17
[+22] [2010-04-17 07:44:24] user143151 
First brick here?
Check out the FAQ!

sigh.... brick. - Earlz
18
[+21] [2010-04-17 01:18:26] Mike Spross

I prefer a more nuanced message:

  123456789012345678
1 Add 2 parts Q & A,
2 1 part Wiki,
3 1 part forum.
4 Bake for 6-8 weeks
5 Makes 3-4 servings
6 stackoverflow.com

(4) -1 forgot to mention waffles - uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
@George: Clearly I'm not spending enough time on meta (for the uninitiated: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19392/…;. - Mike Spross
@mike what about s/1 part forum/1 part Waffles ? - Earlz
@Earlz: My other answer has waffles and got no love. I blame John Cusack :( - Mike Spross
WHERE'S THE PONY? - ariefbayu
where do I see 6-8 weeks joke? - samuelcarrijo
19
[+20] [2010-04-17 14:10:13] YOU 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow\.com
2.you shouldn't par\
3.se [X]HTML with re
4.gular expressions.
5.have you tried HT\
6.ML Parser instead?

(3) haha, I always hate it when people rain on my cthulu parade! - travis
20
[+19] [2010-04-17 00:39:25] Kyle Cronin 
if you're looking        
for gender reass-      
ignment, you've          
come to the wrong
place 
 stackoverflow.com

(27) +1 But I'm sure the history books will have long forgotten the hyphen-site, making this one confusing brick :) - Jonathan Sampson
21
[+18] [2010-04-17 00:11:17] Jon Seigel 
  123456789012345678
1        \   |
2      __  \  |
3        --_ \ |
4    | ______ |
5    |________|
6 stackoverflow.com

beat you by 25 seconds :-P - Kyle Cronin
I think it's unlikely the brick will use a monospace font, though, which means alignment would be problematic - Jeff Atwood
(9) and the bricks have logos anyway - Joel Spolsky
(4) Any one have any pictures of actual bricks? - dwj
22
[+18] [2010-04-17 14:53:37] tvanfosson 


  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2
3   eventually
4  we'd like to
5     be an
6    exhibit

23
[+17] [2010-04-17 01:21:55] cobbal 
  123456789012345678
1  
2 
3 (λx.x x) (λx.x x)
4 stackoverflow.com
5 
6

(2) omega, my mega. - Jared Updike
SO - lambda style :) - Yuval A
24
[+15] [2010-04-16 23:56:47] Jason 
  123456789012345678
1 The only community
2 on the internet
3 where users enjoy
4 when avatars are
5 hacked and turned
6 into unicorns.

(2) Without the hyphen the word community just fits fine on that first line, right? - Arjan
25
[+14] [2010-04-17 03:13:00] Alconja

How about:

  123456789012345678
1
2            Alconja
3              3,772
4          ●1 ●3 ●16
5  
6 stackoverflow.com

Ok, maybe I'm not well known enough... so perhaps:

  123456789012345678
1
2          Jon Skeet
3            168,276
4     ●31 ●593 ●1153
5
6 stackoverflow.com

Or:

  123456789012345678
1
2      Jeff Atwood ♦
3             58,226
4       ●9 ●110 ●190
5
6 stackoverflow.com

I would use some |s and -s and such to put a "border" around it. Maybe that would look weird. - MatrixFrog
@MatrixFrog: Yeah I was going to, except Jeff mentioned that it probably wouldn't be a fixed width font, which would make it come out weird. - Alconja
(46) Let Jon buy his own brick! - C. Ross
26
[+14] [2010-04-17 15:55:49] Ólafur Waage 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2  
3 Fixing the
4 internet
5 one question
6 at a time

27
[+13] [2010-04-17 13:33:56] Adam Davis

The solution is obvious. You need to buy many bricks, and set them up with graphics of the game breakout.


28
[+12] [2010-04-17 01:27:01] perbert

Not to rain in your parade, but this is the kind of neighbours you'd have?


(21) I'm really hoping these "examples" aren't representative. We're in the high-rent neighborhood.. - Jeff Atwood
(1) @Jeff: that reminds me... who is paying for this? :) - uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
(5) If someone pays $5k for one of these I'll send them my address so they can send to balance of their excess to me. - squillman
29
[+11] [2010-04-17 00:10:28] Tim Erickson 
010100110111010001
100001011000110110
101101001111011101
100110010101110010
011001100110110001
10111101110111

(4) I'd prefer it in mixed case or all lower case instead of all caps. - Dennis Williamson
Just for you, Dennis... - Tim Erickson
(16) -1, a lot of bricks will be like that, methinks. - MPelletier
30
[+9] [2010-04-17 00:30:49] Zach Johnson

As an extension of Jason's answer:

  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 My name is
3 Jeff Atwood.
4 I built this site.
5 It took me six to
6 eight weeks.

And there I thought it would take only a weekend... - Gnoupi
Why not just And on the eigth week - He rested , s/-/\n/ because comments won't let me. - Tim Post
31
[+8] [2010-04-18 20:39:03] jjnguy 
  123456789012345678
0 This brick just
1 holds up a wall.
2 StackOverflow.com
3 holds up the
4 entire community  
5 of developers

Oops. That's 7 lines! - Bill
@Bill Haha, oops. Didn't even realize it. - jjnguy
32
[+8] [2010-04-23 07:48:29] Tim Post

This just came to mind:

 123456789012345678
1  Our collective
2 attempt at being
3      funny
4   ended up in
5    a museum.
6 stackoverflow.com

Meta-meta-meta brick - Earlz
33
[+7] [2010-04-17 00:01:43] Jason 
  123456789012345678
1 My name is
2 Jeff Atwood.
3 I built this site.
4 In case you forgot
5 my name, again, is
6 Jeff Atwood.

(7) That can't be from the real Jeff; you're missing any mention of [status-bydesign]. - Ether
That name again is Mr. Plow! - Michael Pryor
34
[+7] [2010-04-17 01:33:52] Eric Landry 
      123456789012345678
    1 Honoring
    2 stackoverflow.com
    3 who improved how 
    4 experts exchange 
    5 information. It's
    6 rockhardawesome!

(1) I'm so tempted to stick a hyphen in there... - that one guy
(1) @that one guy: Hyphen? I'm tempted to put "experts" in quotes :) - Billy ONeal
35
[+7] [2010-04-18 13:18:44] Michael Stum 
  123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2 Our humble attempt
3 to improve the way
4 developers create
5 software for the
6 rest of us.

It's a museum, especially one that is highly respected. I think humbleness helps to show respect to the museum and its cause and also to get back some respect in 10, 20 or 50 years.


36
[+6] [2010-04-17 16:18:29] Robert Cartaino 
  123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2 This brick would
3 have been
4 voted up if it had
5 free-hand circles.
6 [status-rejected]

37
[+6] [2010-04-18 12:33:23] Skizz 
   123456789012345678
1  If we have made
2  software better,
3  it is by standing
4  on the shoulders
5  of giants.
6  stackoverflow.com

38
[+5] [2010-04-16 23:55:07] Tom Ritter

Or if you'd like to throw a philosophical in-joke in...

 it took a bit, but
 we learned the 
 important things
 aren't answers,
 but questions.
  stackoverflow.com

(6) Except that this is incorrect. - Lawrence Dol
(5) [subjective-and-argumentative]. Some would argue the important things aren't questions, but Unicorns... :) - Jonathan Sampson
(4) Tell that to the users who lost half of the rep gained from asking questions.... - Michael Kniskern
39
[+5] [2010-04-17 00:45:17] Dennis Williamson 
  123456789012345678
1     Badges?
2 We don't need no
3    steenkin'
4     badges!
5 
6 stackoverflow.com

40
[+5] [2010-04-17 08:10:12] Olly

 

 123456789012345678
1 I am Jeff Atwood
2   I like computers
3 I am Joel Spolsky
4   I like jam


41
[+5] [2010-04-18 03:43:29] Tim Post 
 123456789012345678
1 int main(void) {
2     main();
3 } 
4      Dot com
5     Was  here 
6       2010

Possibly not language agnostic enough for the whole community, though.


42
[+5] [2010-04-18 04:46:14] uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN

Credit to @Cobbal

  123456789012345678
1 
2    plz-send-teh 
3        brickz
4 
5 stackoverflow.com
6

43
[+4] [2010-04-17 00:56:55] Brad Bruce

stackoverflow.com

No hyphens needed


44
[+4] [2010-04-17 01:13:09] wolfbyte 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2
3   Answered 2009
4
5     Great Brick
6   Community Wiki

45
[+4] [2010-04-18 04:17:46] Adam Davis 
  123456789012345678
0 Stackoverflow.com
1 From the people
2 who write code for
3 these computers:
4 Thank you for 
5 preserving our
6 history and legacy

(1) Too many blocks seem like advertisements for stackoverflow. I'd like to see the block look like a true gift of appreciation for the work that CHM is undertaking. - Adam Davis
Nice thought, but this could easily be interpreted the opposite way. That is, developers thanking SO for preserving their old questions and answers. - Pops
46
[+3] [2010-04-16 23:52:39] user135040 
stackoverflow: 
please don't use 
phpBB for question 
and answer sites

(1) s/stackoverflow/stack exchange - Earlz
s/stackoverflow/Stack Overflow/ (or s/stackoverflow/StackExchange/) - Arjan
47
[+3] [2010-04-17 00:22:07] Jon Seigel 
  123456789012345678
1
2 stackoverflow.com
3
4  we have waffles
5
6

48
[+3] [2010-04-17 01:29:27] Andrew 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 fast
3      free
4           answers
5 run by:
6      the community

sed s/ran/run/ answer - Dennis Williamson
Changed. Happy? :-) - Andrew
49
[+3] [2010-04-19 04:05:26] Bill

An obvious (but not serious) response.

  123456789012345678

1 stackoverflow.com
2
3 just another
4  brick in the wall
5
6

50
[+3] [2010-04-20 01:45:44] delete 
      123456789012345678
    1 StackOverflow.com:
    2 A programming
    3 community exploit.
    4 Founded by Joel
    5 Spolsky and Jeff
    6 Atwood July 2008

51
[+2] [2010-04-17 00:07:07] ahsteele

Similar to my other brick [1] suggestion but with the Stack Exchange mission [2] spiced up to be specific for Stack Overflow.

  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 Make the Internet
3 a better place to
4 get expert answers
5 to your program-
6 ming questions
[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/46920/a-stack-overflow-brick-in-the-computer-history-museum-wall/46926#46926
[2] http://blog.stackexchange.com/post/518474918/stack-exchange-2-0

52
[+2] [2010-04-17 00:10:53] Kyle Cronin 
      ╲ │      
   ╲-  ╲ │ stack         
     ╲- ╲   over        
 │ ---_╲_ │  flow        
 │ ______ │   .com
 └────────┘

53
[+2] [2010-04-17 03:35:17] Earlz 
  123456789012345678
1 def StackOverflow
2   ask_questions
3   give_answers
4   profit!
5   buy_brick
6 end

Valid Ruby code :)


(3) +1 even though I'm somewhat of a Python lover and Ruby hater. - MatrixFrog
54
[+2] [2010-04-17 06:36:23] Pëkka

Text 

No matter what 
future holds,
We were the first
that worked
stackoverflow.com

55
[+2] [2010-04-17 07:45:30] Brian Surowiec 
 123456789012345678
1                  
2                  
3  plaque coming   
4  in 6-8 weeks    
5                  
6

or

 123456789012345678
1                  
2 the plaque will  
3 be ready in      
4 in 6-8 weeks     
5                  
6

[status-planned] - Earlz
(2) this is more about Jeff Atwood than it is about SO - jmfsg
56
[+2] [2010-04-24 06:45:30] Aristos 
  123456789012345678
0 +1 Why click on
1 stackoverflow.com
2    not working ?
3 
4 +30 Because we are
5   on a brick

57
[+1] [2010-04-17 14:33:28] John Rudy

Boy am I late to the party -- shows me for having a life on Friday night! :)

  123456789012345678
1 If you grok
2 Ponies and waffles
3 plz-send-teh-codez
4 & status-declined
5 You belong on
6 stackoverflow.com

58
[+1] [2010-04-17 14:59:17] Arjan

Some of those (ugly!) official examples [1] certainly don't play by the 18-character rule:

123456789012345678            123456789012345678            123456789012345678 
"GOOGLE," a play on           Batman Arkham Asylum          A. Chang has
the word "googol,"            My best gaming                1 Terabyte of digital
the mathematical              addiction - B. Collins        storage..... You?
term for a 1 followed
by 100 zeros.

Maybe the rules aren't that strict? $46 per character is quite a lot of money, and I assume the CHM wants things to look nice too...

[1] http://www.computerhistory.org/contribute/impression/images/wall_plaques_big.jpg

59
[+1] [2010-04-18 13:06:06] Michael Stum 
  123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2 Dedicated towards
3 finding excellent,
4 accurate & lasting
5 answers to every
6 programming issue.

or
6 developer question

60
[+1] [2010-04-18 13:09:46] Michael Stum 
  123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2 Established 2008
3 to serve everyone
4 who is interested
5 in writing lasting
6 software.

(1) Why "lasting" though? - delete
Because timeless was too long :) It's my belief that Software we write should be useful for more than 5 minutes - it should still be useful in 5 years, and that is only possible if it's robust and well-architected. It's my belief that the more "hardcore" SO users are interested in writing better architected software rather than just getting the job done as quickly as possible. Also see thedailywtf.com/articles/… - Michael Stum
61
[+1] [2010-04-18 13:14:56] Michael Stum 
  123456789012345678
1 Software is about
2 improving the life
3 of human beings.
4 StackOverflow.com 
5 helps developers
6 to make it happen.

62
[+1] [2010-04-20 10:32:11] Aristos 
123456789012345678
0 StackOverflow.com
1 
2   I am the
3    answer 
4    to our
5   question

meaning that this brick have an answer to the question, what to write on.


63
[+1] [2010-04-20 13:47:35] Benjol 
  123456789012345678
1 ##################
2 #  >  \    /   \ #
3 #  /           / #
4 #        #       #
5 #  \  /  # \   x #
6 ##################

Lasers! [1]

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1480023/code-golf-lasers

64
[+1] [2010-04-21 00:27:13] glasnt 
 123456789012345678
0 Haikus are
1      confusing
2 But the answers
3      do make sense
4 StackOverflow.com
5

(1) "Questions in [and, of] / confusion / But the answers / do make sense" - Dennis Williamson
65
[+1] [2010-04-24 06:40:48] Aristos 
  123456789012345678
0 +1 Why
1 stackneverflow.com
2 not working ?
3 
4 +3 Try to replace
5 'never' with 'over'

66
[+1] [2010-05-01 20:43:40] drozzy

I'll try:

  123456789012345678
1 To: Skynet
2 You are welcome.
3
4 stackoverflow.com
5
6

67
[+1] [2010-05-04 17:50:27] Greg Bray

Not sure if you can use non-alphanumeric characters or not, but how about something really geeky like Hello world written as a palindrome in Befunge? [1]

  123456789012345678
1 0"dlroW ,olleH"v<
2 @_,^         >#:^
3 ^:#>         ^,_@
4 <v"Hello, World"0
5 
6 stackoverflow.com

You would have to check and make sure they use a monospaced font too of course :-P

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/659752/programming-challenge-can-you-code-a-hello-world-program-as-a-palindrome/730431#730431

68
[0] [2010-04-16 23:51:17] Tom Ritter 

  Computer Science 
  is no more about
   computers than
    astronomy is 
   about telescopes
          -Dijkstra

(2) it's a great quote, but it's more about computer science than it is about programming - i.e. you can't really replace "computer science" in the quote with "programming" - Kyle Cronin
(3) Agree with Kyle. Good quote, but not for this purpose. - Andrew
69
[0] [2010-04-16 23:53:21] ahsteele

I like the idea of stating what Stack Overflow is all about [1].

  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 We help the
3 world's best
4 developers make
5 better software
6
[1] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/backIssues-2009-11.html

(2) well, that's what Fog Creek is about, technically - Jeff Atwood
lol true, but very similar to the stack exchange: Make the Internet a better place to get expert answers to your questions. - ahsteele
What about us hopeless developers? - UpTheCreek
70
[0] [2010-04-17 02:16:54] Adam Davis 
  123456789012345678
1 Couldn't figure
2 out how to put
3 text on this brick
4 thingadongdong.
5
6

(2) Looks like you figured it out... - uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
71
[0] [2010-04-17 05:34:56] Mike Spross

History, potential for irony if the brick survives the end of the world in 2012 and a mutant zombie survivor visits the museum, and waffles!

  123456789012345678
1 1804:Jacquard Loom
2 1946:ENIAC 
3 1971:First e-mail
4 2008:stackoverflow
5 2009:Waffles
6 2012:John Cusack?

72
[0] [2010-04-17 08:20:01] Mircea Chirea 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 
3 Replacing Google
4   question by 
5    question!
6

(5) This is patently wrong, as something like 50% of SO's traffic comes FROM google. - Stefan Kendall
73
[0] [2010-04-17 08:22:52] Dr.Spaceman 
 123456789012345678
1 Mortar Overflow
2
3
4
5
6

74
[0] [2010-04-17 13:51:52] AnonJr 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 
3 For help when 
4 your site has
5 been bricked.
6

Bit web focused. - UpTheCreek
@sosh: what do you expect from a web developer? or a brick for a web site? :p - AnonJr
It is a website, but not solely about websites. - UpTheCreek
If anything, this would be the Server Fault brick. - Pops
75
[0] [2010-04-18 04:43:12] derobert

Since its a computer history museum, I suggest something about the history of internet Q&A. Stackoverflow's history goes back at least as far as Michael E. Lesk (UUCP) and Tome Truscott & Jim Ellis (Usenet). No doubt some early BBSs as well. And whoever came up with the first web forum.

And a special thanks to the hyphen site for showing us how not to do it. :-P


76
[0] [2010-04-18 13:13:28] Michael Stum 
  123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2 is you and every
3 other developer
4 who is dedicated
5 to create software
6 which helps people

I know, sounds like a motto for Alt.Net, but I honestly believe that most SO users want to write great software rather than just the bare minimum.


Many people reading this will not be developers - UpTheCreek
77
[0] [2010-04-19 05:29:39] beggs 
  123456789012345678
1 You can't parse   
2 [X]HTML with regex
3 Because HTML can't
4 be parsed by regex
5 find out why...
6 Stackoverflow.com

(2) This is actually a dupe of an earlier answer. Votes here should prolly be put on the first one. - jjnguy
78
[0] [2010-04-19 12:19:26] perbert 
  123456789012345678
1 How is c pound
2 formed? How is
3 program get
4 compiled?
5 Closed as "not a
6 real question"

79
[0] [2010-04-20 02:00:13] perbert 
  123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2 The power of
3 crowdsourced
4 programming
5 knowledge

80
[0] [2010-04-20 11:38:54] Konamiman 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2       This
3      should
4        be
5    commnunity
6       wiki

81
[0] [2010-04-20 11:45:39] UpTheCreek 
  123456789012345678
1 "The only thing
2 that will redeem
3      mankind
4 is co-operation."
5 - Bertrand Russell
6 StackOverflow.com

82
[0] [2010-04-21 15:59:54] Bob 
   123456789012345678
 1
 2
 3 StackOverflow.com:
 4 Internet++
 5
 6

Short and simple, but I think it captures the spirit of making the internet a better place, as well as being a programming reference


Hello? Awfully sorry to bother you, but I seem to have found a poor semicolon that I believe could be yours. Do you know this ;? - perbert
@json Yeah, I know, I remembered the semi-colon but I wasn't going for correctness. After all, C++ isn't named "C++;" - Bob
83
[0] [2010-04-29 20:51:03] Filburt 
  123456789012345678
1
2
3     use jQuery
4
5
6

84
[-1] [2010-04-17 07:11:31] RSolberg 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 
3 Where
4 Jon Skeet eats
5 everyone else
6 for breakfeast.

(3) -1 SO is not Jon Skeet - jmfsg
85
[-1] [2010-04-17 07:12:33] RSolberg 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 
3 Because...
4 Jon Skeet
5 is a prime Number
6

(3) -1 SO is not Jon Skeet - jmfsg
86
[-1] [2010-04-17 07:27:50] Earlz 
  123456789012345678
1 Layout bug with lo
2 stackoverflow.com
3 [bug] [layout]
4 [status-bydesign]
5 Edited by Jeff
6 Atwood ♦

87
[-1] [2010-04-19 09:42:24] pinaki 
  123456789012345678
1 stacking
2 questions and...
3 answers, since..
4 [created-date]
5 until,
6 [overflow-error]

well well well... no reason and a down vote??? - pinaki
88
[-1] [2010-04-19 13:33:22] Won't 
  123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2   Take fifteen 
3  minutes to give
4 an awesome answer
5       ...
6 GODDAMNIT SKEET!!!

(1) similar meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/46920/… - Won't
89
[-1] [2010-04-19 13:56:10] user146259 
123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2 One small 
3 question, one
3 giant answer
4 for programmers 
5 everywhere.
6

90
[-1] [2010-04-19 14:54:46] Adam Davis 
  123456789012345678
0     This is a 
1     registered
2  thingabrickbrick.
3 Stackoverflow.com:
4   Question your
5  thingadongdongs.

91
[-1] [2010-04-20 06:56:38] Aristos 
  123456789012345678
0 StackOverflow.com
1 where make 
2 questions 
3 and get answer 
4 like
5 this wall -stacked

92
[-1] [2010-04-20 18:47:45] Jeeva S 
123456789012345678
1 google.com
2 how to....??
3 your page
4 automatically
5 redireting to
6 stackoverflow.com

93
[-1] [2010-04-22 21:03:05] pixel 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com 
2 301 Moved
3 Location: http://
4   meta.
5     stackoverflow
6       .com

94
[-2] [2010-04-19 13:40:06] Won't 
  123456789012345678
1    JON SKEET!!!
2  Slowly I turned
3       ...
4   step by step
5       ...
6   inch by inch

similar meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/46920/… - Won't
95
[-2] [2010-04-20 05:29:39] Rashmi Pandit 
   123456789012345678  
 1 Answer  upvote 10+ 
 2 Question upvote 5+ 
 3 Look on your face 
 4 when you find your  
 5 solution PRICELESS
 6 Stackoverflow.com

AFAIK, Comment upvotes give 0 rep. - waiwai933
Oops .... you are right ... thanx :) - Rashmi Pandit
96
[-3] [2010-04-20 14:44:52] Gordon 
  123456789012345678
1 Jeff
2 and
3 Joel
4 jumped
5 the
6 Shark.

97
[-4] [2010-04-21 18:34:34] JohnFx 
  123456789012345678
1 What should I put 
2 on this brick?  
3 Plz-send-teh-codez

It's a bit frightening that Plz-send-teh-codez fits perfectly. - perbert
98
[-5] [2010-04-17 03:07:27] uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN 
      123456789012345678
    1 StackOverflow.com:
    2 A huge improvement
    3 over Yahoo Answers
    4 and all of those
    5 other useless
    6 answering sites!

(1) Boo! This was a good idea! Who downvoted? - uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
(15) Do we really want to call other sites "useless" in granite? Is that the kind of message we're sending? - Jeff Atwood
@Jeff We p0wn other bricks - Earlz
@Jeff - but really, it is better. Are we afraid to say it's better...? I don't think so. And when it gets engraved, people years from now will remember just how much better it was. - uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
@George: Pride goes before a fall. Recent relevant example: right now Apple thinks it's the shit, but just wait and see. :-P - Chris Jester-Young
(1) @George: Your "this was a good idea!" comment is content-free, because every Tom, Dick, and Harry thinks their own idea is a good one. :-P - Chris Jester-Young
I prefer Y! answers, what is your problem with Yahoo Answers? Could you please add it to the brick suggestion. - Evan Carroll
@Evan: It is a complete mess. Most of the participants can't speak English very well, the wrong/incorrect answers outnumber the correct answers, and the site is full of spam. Also there are no comments, no CW, etc. I have used it and can honestly say it stinks. - uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
(2) @George: don't feed the troll - perbert
99
[-6] [2010-04-17 02:26:46] user146184

Stackoverflow.com

9/10 programmers

agree: It's

teh awesome !!!11


(3) PLZ HELP BRICK T3XT NO WORK HELPZZZZ!!111!1 - Earlz
(1) Ya... it's pretty bad. - uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
(4) [homework][plz-send-teh-brickz] - cobbal
100