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Reminds me of this rock paper scissors bot that has a 59% win rate against other algorithms: https://rpscontest.com/entry/614005 https://rpscontest.com/entry/61

Reminds me of this rock paper scissors bot that has a 59% win rate against other algorithms: https://rpscontest.com/entry/614005 https://rpscontest.com/entry/614005

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
bwestergard 2y ago
This is extremely funny. I'm assuming they just tried many seeds until one worked, to demonstrate the role of chance in scoring these programs?
- porphyra 2y ago
  Apparently they downloaded a bunch of the best bots at the time and tested locally to find a seed that performs the best.
  - ryan-c 2y ago
    If I recall correctly, I downloaded all of them, then pruned any that appeared to have non-deterministic behaviour (for example, using random), then used the offline testing script[0] helpfully provided by the site. It was the first piece of code I put out that someone referred to as "art"[1]. Some others that hit the HN front page over the years: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10195358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10195358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9516824 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9516824 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26615938 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26615938 I also had wrote some code for my former employer containing the magic string "haha jit go brrr" that raised some eyebrows when someone reverse engineering the code noticed it. It was part of a routine to try to coax the JIT into optimizing the code soon on low end Android devices for performance reasons, but someone who didn't understand what the code was doing thought it was part of an exploit... :facepalm: 0. https://rpscontest.com/rpsrunner.py https://rpscontest.com/rpsrunner.py 1. https://rya.nc/threads/art-and-beauty.html https://rya.nc/threads/art-and-beauty.html
    - its-summertime 2y ago
      > I also had wrote some code for my former employer containing the magic string "haha jit go brrr" https://iter.ca/post/reddit-whiteops/ https://iter.ca/post/reddit-whiteops/
      - ryan-c 2y ago
        The code that checked for DRM support set the "distinctiveIdentifier" config option to "not-allowed" specifically to avoid being useful for tracking. Most of the stuff that people think is "fingerprinting" is just trying to confirm the browser is what it claims to be. It is (or was) tricky to make DRM work in chromium compiled from source. `!("a" == "a"[0])` just detects IE6/7, as they return undefined for "a"[0]: https://unspecified.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/portable-javascript-string-indexing/ https://unspecified.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/portable-javasc... Here's the slide deck for a con talk I did a while back: https://rya.nc/files/A_nickel_tour_of_the_ad_fraud_ecosystem.pdf https://rya.nc/files/A_nickel_tour_of_the_ad_fraud_ecosystem... I haven't worked there for a couple of years though.
      - lupire 2y ago
        How is that related?
        fragmede 2y ago
        > Contains what appears to be a Javascript engine JIT exploit/bug, "haha jit go brrrrr" appears in a part of the code that appears to be doing something weird with math operations.
    - adastra22 2y ago
      > If I recall correctly, I… Only on HN does someone asks questions about an obscure cool thing and the original author enters the discussion. Thanks for the explanation.
      - ryan-c 2y ago
        Imagine my surprise at opening the comments and seeing a reference to some obscure art I made a dozen years ago.

Reminds me of this rock paper scissors bot that has a 59% win rate against other algorithms: https://rpscontest.com/entry/614005 https://rpscontest.com/entry/614005

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

bwestergard 2y ago

This is extremely funny. I'm assuming they just tried many seeds until one worked, to demonstrate the role of chance in scoring these programs?

porphyra 2y ago
Apparently they downloaded a bunch of the best bots at the time and tested locally to find a seed that performs the best.
- ryan-c 2y ago
  If I recall correctly, I downloaded all of them, then pruned any that appeared to have non-deterministic behaviour (for example, using random), then used the offline testing script[0] helpfully provided by the site. It was the first piece of code I put out that someone referred to as "art"[1]. Some others that hit the HN front page over the years: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10195358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10195358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9516824 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9516824 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26615938 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26615938 I also had wrote some code for my former employer containing the magic string "haha jit go brrr" that raised some eyebrows when someone reverse engineering the code noticed it. It was part of a routine to try to coax the JIT into optimizing the code soon on low end Android devices for performance reasons, but someone who didn't understand what the code was doing thought it was part of an exploit... :facepalm: 0. https://rpscontest.com/rpsrunner.py https://rpscontest.com/rpsrunner.py 1. https://rya.nc/threads/art-and-beauty.html https://rya.nc/threads/art-and-beauty.html
  - its-summertime 2y ago
    > I also had wrote some code for my former employer containing the magic string "haha jit go brrr" https://iter.ca/post/reddit-whiteops/ https://iter.ca/post/reddit-whiteops/
    - ryan-c 2y ago
      The code that checked for DRM support set the "distinctiveIdentifier" config option to "not-allowed" specifically to avoid being useful for tracking. Most of the stuff that people think is "fingerprinting" is just trying to confirm the browser is what it claims to be. It is (or was) tricky to make DRM work in chromium compiled from source. `!("a" == "a"[0])` just detects IE6/7, as they return undefined for "a"[0]: https://unspecified.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/portable-javascript-string-indexing/ https://unspecified.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/portable-javasc... Here's the slide deck for a con talk I did a while back: https://rya.nc/files/A_nickel_tour_of_the_ad_fraud_ecosystem.pdf https://rya.nc/files/A_nickel_tour_of_the_ad_fraud_ecosystem... I haven't worked there for a couple of years though.
    - lupire 2y ago
      How is that related?
      - fragmede 2y ago
        > Contains what appears to be a Javascript engine JIT exploit/bug, "haha jit go brrrrr" appears in a part of the code that appears to be doing something weird with math operations.
  - adastra22 2y ago
    > If I recall correctly, I… Only on HN does someone asks questions about an obscure cool thing and the original author enters the discussion. Thanks for the explanation.
    - ryan-c 2y ago
      Imagine my surprise at opening the comments and seeing a reference to some obscure art I made a dozen years ago.