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Mr TIFF

inventingthefuture.ghost.io

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Re: Mr TIFF

#111

Post by bambax »

abdusco wrote: post #92
bambax wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Also: 42 is the answer to everything because it's the ascii code for *).

> the ASCII code for h Umm. The ASCII code for h is 102 ;)

I don't know why or how you're seeing an h? I'm talking about the asterisk.

Re: Mr TIFF

#112

Post by btreecat »

hellojohnbuck wrote: post #56
OisinMoran wrote: post #8

If you had told me an article ostensibly about a file format would have me teary-eyed by the end I wouldn't have believed you. This is beautiful, thank you!

Thanks oisin, it's a beautiful story and his ex-wife gave me permission to share.

Thank you both!

Re: Mr TIFF

#113

Post by layer8 »

antonis-gr wrote: post #105
nullhole wrote: post #9

Don't have much to add except to mention again that the magic number for TIF is 42, and it's 42 because of the meaning of 42: https://web.archive.org/web/20210108174645/https://www.adobe... Bytes 2-3 An arbitrary but carefully chosen number (42) that further identifies the file as a TIFF file

42 is an extremely non-special number. Does anyone know if it appeared in the CS field before Douglas Addams "invented" it?

What do you mean, non-special? 42 is the magic constant of the smallest non-trivial magic cube.

Re: Mr TIFF

#114

Post by noisy_boy »

I have a habit of filling my head with all kinds of trivia/information. Sometimes I think this is a useless habit.

Not today. I will try to remember the name of Mr. Stephen Carlsen as the inventor of TIFF format as long as I can. As a mediocre programmer, it is the least amount of respect I can pay for an unsung but talented engineer of an era that is fast going past us.

Re: Mr TIFF

#115

Post by svat »

vanderZwan wrote: post #70
svat wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! If you look at his (logged-in) edits on Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Scarlsen ), then apart from the lone comment on the talk page (about the reason for "42") and creating that user page, he has two edits to the TIFF article: - one of them clarifies the (non-)involvement of Microsoft: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=TIFF&diff=prev&ol... - and the other is even mor…

Ok so then we could technically edit it back in since he's a primary source, right?

It's been a few years since I edited Wikipedia seriously, but the criterion for inclusion on Wikipedia is/was “verifiability, not truth” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability,_not_t...) – what matters is not whether something is true, but whether it has been published in a reliable source (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources). Accordingly, Wikipedia tries to be based on secondary sources (rather than primary and tertiary ones). The relevant section (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research...) says, among other things:

> Primary sources that have been reputably published may be used in Wikipedia, but only with care

and I imagine a Wikipedia edit summary does not count as a reliable source. (For one thing, despite it being very plausible that the Wikipedia user Scarlsen who signed himself as Stephen E Carlsen is indeed that person—I believe it completely!—it cannot be guaranteed that it wasn't an impostor, for example.)

Re: Mr TIFF

#117

Post by beAbU »

wongarsu wrote: post #90
vanderZwan wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok so then we could technically edit it back in since he's a primary source, right?

That would be what Wikipedia calls "original research". A big no-no on wikipedia. At a minimum he would have to tweet or blog about it and link the tweet or blog. And even then that's a primary source, which wikipedia considers less valuable. Ideally he would get someone else to report on his tweet/blog and use that as source. Then the wikipedia gods are happy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_resea…

So can we use this conversation on HN as a secondary source, and edit the deletion back in citing Hacker News?

Re: Mr TIFF

#118

Post by 0manrho »

bambax wrote: post #111
abdusco wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the ASCII code for h Umm. The ASCII code for h is 102 ;)

I don't know why or how you're seeing an h? I'm talking about the asterisk.

I could be wrong but the winky face leads me to believe theyre referencing the hunter2 password meme

Re: Mr TIFF

#120

Post by svat »

darkwater wrote: post #66
adzm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And here is the author himself confirming that in the Wikipedia talk page for TIFF! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:TIFF/Archive_1#h-Source_f...

Hindsight is 20/20 and I loved TFA and I don't want to ruin it but... that comment was there from 2007 and the Wikipedia user bio was pretty clear since the beginning ( https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Scarlsen&old... )

Yes but it's not easy to find random Wikipedia user pages, or even find the specific talk page comment in the archives without knowing what to look for. Go ahead, find a friend, give them no clues, and see if they find it.
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