Today I changed my « My User Details »¹ to
⠋⠑⠑⠇ ⊻ ⠟⠥⠺⠎⠞⠺⠕⠺⠁⠞⠾ ≡ 0 and
felt that I owed an explanation.
When I edit this field, it needs to have the following seven⁴ attributes.
1) It has to be terse (the explanation *can* and perhaps as this one, *should* go to great lenghts). Why settle for 140 characters
à la twitter when you can constrain yourself further to a ≤25 characters of the User Details field.
2) It must be enigmatic and puzzling (but must never be totally cryptic or hermetic). That is the fun part : finding what it means. And the more layers the better. In my example, the
⊻ and
≡ mathematical symbols² are at the first layer of the puzzle, indicating that XORing the terms together is identical to zero. But at the second layer the
Unicode Braille Patterns are not even the same, so how can XORing them solve to zero? This leads to the third layer where one learns that
Braille Patterns are symbols *without* connection to an alphabetic letter or number.
3) It must be meaningful. There must be a message or an idea to convey. It must be sensical and if there is a context it must be related to it. In this case I posted this explanation in the thread about my
Nadsat Translation Dictionary to indicate that the fourth layer of the puzzle involves a translation. Since the Braille Patterns are not tied to a single language they act like a one way function. Finding the source language which lead to the Braille code is not easily reversible but here is
a tool to help you out . Nadsat should already have hinted you that the first term is english-Braille for
feel and the second one russian-Braille⁵ for
чувствовать . This is the fifth layer of the puzzle. If the Braille was embossed (who knows, maybe are you reading on a haptic screen) you could feel *feel*. At this point you could cheat and
ask for a Google Translation, but since this is about math, you already know that at this sixth layer the terms must have identical meaning (if not identical representation) since XORing them is ≡ to 0. And finally, there is a seven layer⁴ᵇ (the one where all of it started) and contrary the title it is not off topic other than this other thread :
about Tommy.
4) It must be specialized and consistent in style. À la
Randall Munroe , if you ever followed the series of updates, my main subjects of interest are Language, Math and History.
5) It has to be somewhat appealing. Using fancy Unicode helps a lot here. Well, if you read this far, it must have attracted enough of your attention!
6) It benefits from being Hyperlinked with explicit web references and more subtly by
cameo appearances. In my errand searches, I inevitably discover something totally different. For example the title of this post contains a cameo of my previous User Details edition
U+203D≡ᴳᴺᴬᴮᴼᴿᴿᴱᵀᴺᴵ≡8⇂Ǝᄅ+∩ . And the links I have sprinkled throughout will hopefully send you in different paths.
7) It is an Open art where you must not count your time³. I primarily craft this for
*me* and I spend much more time than I will admit to. I sincerely hope it will catch your interest, but I don't expect nothing in return. I share it freely, kindly and respectfully. And if you use it I will certainly follow you.
NOTES:
¹ I know. Some users set their forum preferences so they will never see any of it. See all they miss!
² A shame that I couldn't find a more elegant
APL math operator for this.
³ It is a hobby after all.
⁴
Seven is a good number and I had to stop somewhere.
⁴ᵇ See ⁴
⁵ BTW I don't speak or read Russian