Someone here should make a robot to find the other 2 secret boards

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From: baconbits | Posted: 09/04/2006 1:00:46 AM
Divide up the boards from 0 - 909090909 into several smaller segments, say, 12 pieces.

Then just change the paramaters of the program, making 12 copies of it, each set to skim a different section of the boards.

Then distribute the programs to people here on the boards, so that each of us are only doing part of the work, then we compile the results. Doing it like that would only take a day, total.

It's SETI's strategy :)
From: FireCrotch | Posted: 09/04/2006 1:59:42 AM
Okay, but we need someone to actually write the program first.
From: baconbits | Posted: 09/04/2006 3:20:41 AM
Actually, I'm currently working on that ^_^

It is actually pretty simple, what we want it to do...I just gotta...do it >_>

EDIT: I've almost got it working now...just a few kinks to work out (it only pulls one page per run, doesn't parse properly, and doesn't write to a file...yeah, that's most of what the program needs to do, I know, but I got it to connect to the page, and that's the biggest issue I was having.)

Edited by baconbits at 09/04/2006 3:45:09 AM

From: baconbits | Posted: 09/04/2006 4:09:29 AM
The only barrier at the moment (Besides my incredibly slow problem solving skills) is that I don't know how to make it skip game boards...it just checks EVERY page...but even still, I can distribute different versions, or perhaps do something to speed it up (Run it on my dad's 64bit processor...perhaps HT and running several versions of the program would work? We have a good net connection...)

You guys tell me.

Also, this board isn't as active as it should be.
From: baconbits | Posted: 09/04/2006 6:48:09 AM
Okay, I have most of it down...it grabs the source, and sticks it in a text file for each board between whatever specified numbers (Does 10 boards in about a second...so much for 1 board per second, eh?)...the thing is, I don't know how to parse all the other crap away, just keeping the board title...

Also, I'll need some sort of an If statement to throw away any boards that aren't actually boards (Invalid board ID), to keep the file-size small once it gets beyond the game boards.

I'm getting help on the Game Design and Programming board, but any help you guys could offer would be much appreciated, considering that even though they are very helpful, the GD&P board is super slow!

FYI I'm using Java, because that's what I know how to program with, lol.
From: baconbits | Posted: 09/04/2006 7:17:46 AM
4 posts in a row (I'm not a big editor...if it's bad practice to post multiple times in a row, let me know and I'll start editing).

Anyway, without the parser, it outputs 100 boards worth of info in about 25-30 seconds.
From: Ryan Dwyer | Posted: 09/04/2006 7:34:47 AM
These are PHP functions.

function preMark($string, $mark) {
if (strpos($string, $mark) === false) return $string;
$end = strpos($string, $mark);
return substr($string, 0, $end);
}

function postMark($string, $mark) {
if (strpos($string, $mark) === false) return $string;
$start = strpos($string, $mark) + strlen($mark);
return substr($string, $start);
}

Remember, pre means before and post means after. preMark() returns everything before the mark, and postMark() returns everything after the mark. Let's pretend $html is the HTML source.

$title = postMark($html, '<div class="head1b">'); // $title will then be everything AFTER <div class etc
$title = preMark($title, '</div>'); // this shortens $title down to everything before the </div>, so it's just the title of the board.

You may want to make similar functions. I've never coded in Java before.
I will not use abbrev.
From: RockMFR | Posted: 09/04/2006 6:02:04 PM
All boards have been found.
The Ohio State University: We are so much better than m*ch!g@n.
From: baconbits | Posted: 09/04/2006 6:49:29 PM
Yeah, I've found them (Hands And Vision), but the program would still be nice to have in the future.
From: RockMFR | Posted: 09/04/2006 9:24:03 PM
Getting booted from Hacked was well worth it. Leaking the location of Manos (and thus sparking the discovery of Goggles) was a grand achievement. =D
The Ohio State University: We are so much better than m*ch!g@n.

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