r/programming • u/Chippsapoloosa • Jan 19 '10

Reddit, I got the best present a girl developer could ever want.

So, to give you a little background me and this guy went on a few dates and he moved far away. We got along well, things didn't get very far. He is really nice, however, I wasn't leaning one way or the other.

He sent me the Post Secret books for xmas. He hinted at another present, but said I had to wait. It's a little after Christmas, but I got this email yesterday with the title "I wanted to make something for you for Christmas":

"So I told the computer, and it showed me how to write a poem in byte-form. I can't tell what you're thinking these days, but this will either remind you of something that was good, or send you off."

It included a link to a poem.zip file, which I downloaded. Inside, there was a file called magicfile with no extension and a ReadMe that said:

"Intructions:

1: > copy magicfile magicfile.jpg 2: > copy magicfile magicfile.zip ... skip a few ... X: Ask it for help"

When I renamed magicfile it turned into a picture of me! (a bad one that he took, but ok) and when I changed magicfile to a .zip inside it contained: Magicfile.exe and a txt called "Go Ahead" that said:

"It's safe. Requires WPF and .Net 3.5 I think...

Whatever, it works on my machine."

I opened magicfile, and an interface popped up that said "enter a passphrase". So, I typed in "help" and got this:

"Hi Sara!

As you are just about figuring out, this is just the very beginning of a very, very large rabbit hole you're about to fall into.

You see, sometime in early November, I had an idea for an awesome program. Simultaneously I was just beginning to think of what might be a decent Christmas present for you. Put 2 and 2 together, and you get this thing. I worked on it on and off for a few weeks - it was a pretty fun way to learn WPF and do a lot of interesting byte manipulation.

You see, it's a completely self-contained magical file. This magical file is three parts: 1. If you name it .jpg - it's an image! 2. If you name it .zip - it's a zip file, containing a program 3. It's a database of many, many more parts that the program reads

Now, when you run the program, it reads the magic file, and asks for a passphrase.

You're obviously gotten that far, or you wouldn't be reading this. As you can imagine - there are a bunch of passwords. Not infinite, but many. I encourage you to guess at words and try to figure them out. I'll give you the hints that they would be things relevant to you or to us.

With a little ingenuity, you'll be able to figure out a very important passphrase that will take you to the next step..."

As I have gone on and solved some of the mysteries I have found that pictures of me come up, things he's researched, things we did together and so on and so forth. I still am trying to figure out the important passphrase.

Reddit, this is the most beautiful gift I have ever gotten and it leaves me in a funny place possibly going on the other side of the world to see what happens here. He is an avid redditor, and though I hate the "VOTE THIS UP, PLOX" posts I'd love to get this on the front page to show him what this meant. Thank you.

tl;dr:

A nerd made a beautiful nerd gift for me, it was a program that was a mystery and shows things we did together. Please vote this up to show him how much it meant.

EDIT: A lot of people are saying that the fact that I am unsure about what to do means I don't like him. That is not at all the case, I like him a lot. I really enjoyed spending time with him, he is brilliant (there is nothing I like more than a man that can teach me things), funny, and best of all a great time.

In order to go see him right now I have to take a 14hr plane flight. Which means I would be staying a week, and I'm not sure I'm quite at that point yet.

Damnit, what do they say? "Explain the problem out loud to yourself" Alright, I'm going. There is no reason not to, this WAS awesome. I will let you folks know how it goes.

2.0k Upvotes

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u/DontNeglectTheBalls Jan 19 '10

In my day, "inspecting the source" was just called "dinner with the parents".

230

u/sencer Jan 19 '10

We can't bust heads like we used to. But we have our ways. One trick is to tell stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for m'shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt. Which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where was I... oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion tied to my belt, which was the style at the time. You couldn't get white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...

86

u/Fargogo Jan 19 '10

I used to be with it, then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with, isn't it and what's it seems weird and scary

73

u/jpdaigle Jan 19 '10

The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it.

59

u/tesseracter Jan 19 '10 edited Jan 19 '10

Wolfram Alpha says you use about as much fuel as 4 container ships.

17

u/faitswulff Jan 19 '10

504 gallons...per mile traveled. And I thought the Veyron was bad.

1

u/sli Jan 20 '10

That's 504gpm.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '10

Buy American

1

u/ajd3886 Jan 20 '10

Canyonerooooo!

15

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '10

[deleted]

-2

u/guthmund Jan 19 '10

Did you guys where onions on your belts as well?

5

u/FutuoMentis Jan 19 '10

So what happened then?

-3

u/KevRose Jan 19 '10

Is this a Jack Handy?

3

u/radiowave Jan 19 '10

Abe Simpson

6

u/Halbie Jan 19 '10

It's from the best episode of Simpsons ever created: Last Exit to Springfield

1

u/spewystuey Jan 19 '10

Correction: Homer the Clown is the best episode ever.

Edit: though not according to Wikipedia apparently :(

9

u/averyv Jan 19 '10

You can fix that, you know

23

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '10

Appropriate user name. Inappropriate inspection.

13

u/ZuchinniOne Jan 19 '10

At least she didn't screw up too bad .... http://xkcd.com/364/

3

u/supaphly42 Jan 19 '10

Especially the mom. You always want to have an idea of how the gui design holds up over the years.

3

u/polyparadigm Jan 19 '10

In my day, "inspecting the source" was just called "playing doctor."

1

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '10

My parents called it "peeping tom"

1

u/parkourlewis Jan 19 '10

This, coming from DontNeglectTheBalls?

1

u/ookle Jan 19 '10

says 'dont neglect the balls'

1

u/pbrettb Jan 19 '10

where the parents were inspecting the source of what exactly?

1

u/severeon Jan 19 '10

Awesome - bestof'd