Unlike the RSS feed, which has a 1-2 hour delay, this will give you near-INSTANTANEOUS updates on the deaths of other players. Also unlike the RSS feed, twitter is not state-based, so it could conceivably let you know about bones files. (Expect that functionality in a day or two.)

Update: The feed now lets you know about bones files.

I feel like I’ve been in here forever.

Wait, that can’t be right… cuz then I’d be dead.

Me, to myself, in a tired stupor, in the shower this morning.

I’ve always been fascinated by esoteric programming languages, though I didn’t until recently know what to call them. The poster child of the esoteric languages is Brainfuck, a programming language whose programs consist entirely of the following eight characters: <> + – [ ] . ,

Any characters other than these eight are ignored by the interpreter (including whitespace). Here is an example brainfuck program:

++++++++++[>+++++++>++++++++++>+++>+<<<<-]>++.>+.++++++
+..+++.>++.<<+++++++++++++++.>.+++.------.--------.>+.>.

It simply outputs “Hello World!” to the screen.

But one-dimensional code is so passé. All the real coders are using two-dimensional languages, for example PATH. PATH programs look somewhat like pictures, and if you look at them you can trace the path of the program visually around it, in two dimensions. I did a little experimentation in PATH but then settled on Befunge as my esoteric language of choice because it allows for user interaction (which PATH does not).

Here is an example Befunge program:

vv  <      <
    2
    ^  v<
 v1<?>3v4
    ^   ^
>  >?>  ?>5^
    v   v
 v9<?>7v6
    v  v<
    8
 .  >  >   ^
^<

It generates random numbers.

Unfortunately, there was no interpreter for Befunge written in PHP (that I could find) so I wrote one. It’s called Bephunge and it’s awesome.

I am currently working on a Befunge program that allows two humans to play Tic-Tac-Toe. This could probably be done in about 5 minutes in any typical programming language, but then it wouldn’t blow my mind.

Gucwa’s Law of Wikipedia states that every article on Wikipedia is 6 or fewer degrees of separation from the Wikipedia article on World War II. That is, starting at any given article on Wikipedia, you can get to the World War II article by following six or fewer links.

(In most test cases I’ve done, this can be accomplished in three or four. I don’t think I’ve seen any at all yet that required all six. Sometime in the future I might tighten Gucwa’s Law to five or four degrees of separation.)

I challenge anyone to disprove this law by finding an article that does not meet this requirement. Unfortunately, this “law” cannot really be proven, it can only be disproven. So, I am opening it up to the scrutiny of the public eye for testing.