Matthew Moss
5/16/2008 3:24:00 PM
[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]
_If you want to ignore the introduction and just get to the task, skip down
to the last paragraph._
Ah, yes... I remember the good ol' days of Usenet, when the signal to noise
ratio was high, very high... certainly much higher than the 1-to-100 ratio
that is the curse of many newsgroups today.
Back then we had rules! And etiquette! And people felt compelled to adhere
to such rules, because... well, that was how things were done. For the most
part, we didn't have to deal with the unrestrained spam that now pervades
the Internet net like the lingering smell of boiled cabbage.
Where was I? ..... Oh yes, signatures! We had signatures for our posts and
email, restricted to a narrow space of no more than four lines and no wider
than the terminal. We'd put our names, email, phone... even funny quotes (or
angry, political quotes for those angry, political folks). But it always fit
within four terminal lines: never more.
But nowadays... What sane person would put his email address in his
signature file, out in plain view for spammers to see? It is folly, I say.
Insanity. Lunacy. I would sooner code in BASIC than publicly divulge my
email address to the world.
Now, I hear you say, "So, genius, how do you provide such information if not
in the signature?" Well, you are right to ask and also right to call me a
genius. Pay attention, and I shall reveal to you how such is accomplished
(best viewed in monospaced font):
x = ("swDlw ms > mMm.hh@ttaiog" + ## Matthew D Moss, 888-555-1234
"<.cMmssoottaaee").split(//); z = ## Department of Fine Ruby Studies
[""] * x.size; puts x.map {z = x. ## University of Wherever I Like
zip(z).sort }.last[9].join + "\n" ## "He that runs Ruby, runs well."
Do you see it? You don't, do you? Look again after I run this signature
through the Ruby interpreter:
Matthew D Moss <matthew.moss@gmail.com>
The silence suggests to me that you are stunned beyond words. I think you
are needing such a challenge...
For your task this week, I ask that you make your own signature such that
displays your email address when run through the Ruby interpreter. The
signature must fit within four lines of no more than 80 characters per line.
(If you still want to avoid outputting an email address, your script may
produce something else: a phone number, a funny quote, vCard, a poem to your
love, whatever...)