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!
123456789012345678 1 stackoverflow.com 2 3 closed as exact 4 duplicate of 5 brick #13379001 6
[don't know how|are unwilling]
to search. First time is free, of course, but after that folks should take some responsibility. - dmckee
9001
? - Lazer
123456789012345678 1 stackoverflow.com 2 3 How do I move the 4 turtle in LOGO? 5 6
123456789012345678 1 See: 2 http://meta. 3 stackoverflow 4 .com/ 5 questions/46920 6 for brick history
123456789012345678 1 stackoverflow.com 2 \ji 3 /.((( 4 (,/"(((__,--. 5 \ ) _( /{ 6 !|| " :||
"
= eyes) - Mechanical snail
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
| StackOverflow.com | Our VC asked us to | build a business, | but we spent | all their money on | this brick. |
- Robert Cartaino
123456789012345678 1 to ask questions 2 is human, 3 but 4 to provide 5 expert answers is 6 stackoverflow.com
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.
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
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
123456789012345678 1 stackoverflow.com 2 Dedicated to the 3 expert programmers 4 whose tireless 5 work made this 6 brick possible.
3 expert programmers
, 4 whose tireless
, 5 work made this
. - Ben McCormack
123456789012345678 1 Programming Q&A;? 2 StackOverflow.com 3 has both. 4 -- Answered 2009 5 community briki 6 Jeff Atwood
community briki
joke was in. - Pops
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.
123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2
3 [closed]brick
4
5 not programming
6 related
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/{
up a line and reduce it to 6. This is actually a common(though not in C#) coding style - Earlz
//
for the comments and you can ditch the */
line. - chakrit
int
so I could fit a {
and a space. Most importantly, it now fits the spec - that one guy
123456789012345678 1 stackoverflow() { 2 ask_questions; 3 get_answers; 4 rep++; 5 return profit; 6 }
return stackoverflow()
actually. Then there it will be a stack overflow (unless you've got tail recursion). - Skilldrick
return stackoverflow()
? - Mechanical snail
123456789012345678 1 StackOverflow.com 2 Dedicated to the 3 tireless effort of 4 expert programmers 5 making this brick 6 [status-complete]
123456789012345678 1 ___|_____|_____|__ 2 |_____|_____|_____ 3 ___|_____|_____|__ 4 |_____|_____|_____ 5 ___|_____|_____|__ 6 |_____|_____|_____
It's just another brick in the wall.
kbd
back, and I'll try. - perbert
kbd
to restore that image after Jeff took kbd
away! - Arjan
First brick here?
Check out the FAQ!
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
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?
if you're looking for gender reass- ignment, you've come to the wrong place stackoverflow.com
123456789012345678 1 \ | 2 __ \ | 3 --_ \ | 4 | ______ | 5 |________| 6 stackoverflow.com
123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2
3 eventually
4 we'd like to
5 be an
6 exhibit
123456789012345678 1 2 3 (λx.x x) (λx.x x) 4 stackoverflow.com 5 6
123456789012345678 1 The only community 2 on the internet 3 where users enjoy 4 when avatars are 5 hacked and turned 6 into unicorns.
community
just fits fine on that first line, right? - Arjan
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
|
s and -
s and such to put a "border" around it. Maybe that would look weird. - MatrixFrog
123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2
3 Fixing the
4 internet
5 one question
6 at a time
The solution is obvious. You need to buy many bricks, and set them up with graphics of the game breakout.
Not to rain in your parade, but this is the kind of neighbours you'd have?
010100110111010001
100001011000110110
101101001111011101
100110010101110010
011001100110110001
10111101110111
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 on the eigth week - He rested
, s/-/\n/ because comments won't let me. - Tim Post
123456789012345678
0 This brick just
1 holds up a wall.
2 StackOverflow.com
3 holds up the
4 entire community
5 of developers
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
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.
123456789012345678 1 Honoring 2 stackoverflow.com 3 who improved how 4 experts exchange 5 information. It's 6 rockhardawesome!
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.
123456789012345678 1 StackOverflow.com 2 This brick would 3 have been 4 voted up if it had 5 free-hand circles. 6 [status-rejected]
123456789012345678
1 If we have made
2 software better,
3 it is by standing
4 on the shoulders
5 of giants.
6 stackoverflow.com
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
123456789012345678 1 Badges? 2 We don't need no 3 steenkin' 4 badges! 5 6 stackoverflow.com
123456789012345678 1 I am Jeff Atwood 2 I like computers 3 I am Joel Spolsky 4 I like jam
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.
Credit to @Cobbal
123456789012345678 1 2 plz-send-teh 3 brickz 4 5 stackoverflow.com 6
stackoverflow.com
No hyphens needed
123456789012345678 1 stackoverflow.com 2 3 Answered 2009 4 5 Great Brick 6 Community Wiki
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
stackoverflow:
please don't use
phpBB for question
and answer sites
s/stackoverflow/Stack Overflow/
(or s/stackoverflow/StackExchange/
) - Arjan
123456789012345678 1 2 stackoverflow.com 3 4 we have waffles 5 6
123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 fast
3 free
4 answers
5 run by:
6 the community
sed s/ran/run/ answer
- Dennis Williamson
An obvious (but not serious) response.
123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2
3 just another
4 brick in the wall
5
6
123456789012345678 1 StackOverflow.com: 2 A programming 3 community exploit. 4 Founded by Joel 5 Spolsky and Jeff 6 Atwood July 2008
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
╲ │ ╲- ╲ │ stack ╲- ╲ over │ ---_╲_ │ flow │ ______ │ .com └────────┘
123456789012345678 1 def StackOverflow 2 ask_questions 3 give_answers 4 profit! 5 buy_brick 6 end
Valid Ruby code :)
Text
No matter what
future holds,
We were the first
that worked
stackoverflow.com
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
123456789012345678
0 +1 Why click on
1 stackoverflow.com
2 not working ?
3
4 +30 Because we are
5 on a brick
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
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 123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2 Dedicated towards
3 finding excellent,
4 accurate & lasting
5 answers to every
6 programming issue.
or
6 developer question
123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2 Established 2008
3 to serve everyone
4 who is interested
5 in writing lasting
6 software.
123456789012345678
1 Software is about
2 improving the life
3 of human beings.
4 StackOverflow.com
5 helps developers
6 to make it happen.
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.
123456789012345678
1 ##################
2 # > \ / \ #
3 # / / #
4 # # #
5 # \ / # \ x #
6 ##################
Lasers! [1]
[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1480023/code-golf-lasers 123456789012345678
0 Haikus are
1 confusing
2 But the answers
3 do make sense
4 StackOverflow.com
5
123456789012345678
0 +1 Why
1 stackneverflow.com
2 not working ?
3
4 +3 Try to replace
5 'never' with 'over'
I'll try:
123456789012345678
1 To: Skynet
2 You are welcome.
3
4 stackoverflow.com
5
6
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#730431Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes -Dijkstra
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
123456789012345678 1 Couldn't figure 2 out how to put 3 text on this brick 4 thingadongdong. 5 6
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?
123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2
3 Replacing Google
4 question by
5 question!
6
123456789012345678
1 Mortar Overflow
2
3
4
5
6
123456789012345678 1 stackoverflow.com 2 3 For help when 4 your site has 5 been bricked. 6
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
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.
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
123456789012345678 1 How is c pound 2 formed? How is 3 program get 4 compiled? 5 Closed as "not a 6 real question"
123456789012345678 1 StackOverflow.com 2 The power of 3 crowdsourced 4 programming 5 knowledge
123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 This
3 should
4 be
5 commnunity
6 wiki
123456789012345678
1 "The only thing
2 that will redeem
3 mankind
4 is co-operation."
5 - Bertrand Russell
6 StackOverflow.com
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
;
? - perbert
123456789012345678
1
2
3 use jQuery
4
5
6
123456789012345678 1 stackoverflow.com 2 3 Where 4 Jon Skeet eats 5 everyone else 6 for breakfeast.
123456789012345678 1 stackoverflow.com 2 3 Because... 4 Jon Skeet 5 is a prime Number 6
123456789012345678 1 Layout bug with lo 2 stackoverflow.com 3 [bug] [layout] 4 [status-bydesign] 5 Edited by Jeff 6 Atwood ♦
123456789012345678
1 stacking
2 questions and...
3 answers, since..
4 [created-date]
5 until,
6 [overflow-error]
123456789012345678 1 StackOverflow.com 2 Take fifteen 3 minutes to give 4 an awesome answer 5 ... 6 GODDAMNIT SKEET!!!
123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2 One small
3 question, one
3 giant answer
4 for programmers
5 everywhere.
6
123456789012345678 0 This is a 1 registered 2 thingabrickbrick. 3 Stackoverflow.com: 4 Question your 5 thingadongdongs.
123456789012345678
0 StackOverflow.com
1 where make
2 questions
3 and get answer
4 like
5 this wall -stacked
123456789012345678
1 google.com
2 how to....??
3 your page
4 automatically
5 redireting to
6 stackoverflow.com
123456789012345678 1 stackoverflow.com 2 301 Moved 3 Location: http:// 4 meta. 5 stackoverflow 6 .com
123456789012345678 1 JON SKEET!!! 2 Slowly I turned 3 ... 4 step by step 5 ... 6 inch by inch
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
123456789012345678 1 Jeff 2 and 3 Joel 4 jumped 5 the 6 Shark.
123456789012345678 1 What should I put 2 on this brick? 3 Plz-send-teh-codez
Plz-send-teh-codez
fits perfectly. - perbert
123456789012345678 1 StackOverflow.com: 2 A huge improvement 3 over Yahoo Answers 4 and all of those 5 other useless 6 answering sites!
Stackoverflow.com
9/10 programmers
agree: It's
teh awesome !!!11
'); DROP TABLE bricks;--
(in two lines, obviously). Oh I see, historical incongruence. - Francisco Presencia