Hm, interesting. So this guy was posting all weird on slashdot, and you remember decades later? And you carried that with you, and it inspired you to type this comment. That's a lot of commitment on your part for a stray period.
That's pretty funny. Thank you for sharing.
Yes, thanks for catching my errors.
I wrote my comment too hastily, you are correct. My comment has been edited, probably while you were typing yours.
I miss the old web, where if someone wanted to RP as a alien or a cat or something in all their forum posts, we just kind of rolled with it. The internet was strange and diverse.
So many people are dog piling this guy because, in essence, he isn't conforming. He's including a little forum signature on his lemmy posts in 2025.
Just ignore it and keep scrolling.
I agree, but not in a "this guy is an idiot" kind of way, but in a "do whatever you want and keep the internet diverse and strange" kind of way. Let the guy have his small protest. Folks need to stop dog piling him. It shows up in many of the threads he's in, and judgments about his little signature dominate over anything he actually had to say.
Ah yep, I wrote my reply too hastily. It is fixed (Edit: I also missed where it specified b is an integer).
(edit: I typed this up not as a response to OP, but for anyone who was curious about this but didn't remember or never learned enough math to solve this for themselves. It had errors but I fixed them (I think, I just woke up and I'm tired of re-reading this comment). Sharing is imperative, and not everyone has had the chance to develop an appreciation for math).
Here I come to explain the joke.
The question asks for what values of b produce no real solutions.
Quadratics (this is the type of equation this is) have two, one or no real real roots. (If we set x to some arbitrary number and the equation is equal to zero, we say x is a root of the equation. A real number is anything we traditionally call a number, like 2, 1/4, -248957.666667 and pi).
So we need to find where it has only one real solution. Quadratics of the form (x-k)^2 = 0 have only one real solution, that solution is k.
So, since 169 = 13^2 we can easily find the b that produces this (this part isn't necessary as part of the solution, I include it in case it helps someone understand):
-1(x-13)^2 = 0
-1(x^2 -26x + 169) = 0
-x^2 +26x - 169 = 0
If we apply the quadratic formula, we can find what values of b produce imaginary roots. I'm not going to type the whole thing out, we just need to know what is happening under the "square root" part of the quadratic formula, the radicand:
sqrt(b^2 - 4 * -1 * 169)
sqrt(b^2 - 676)
sqrt(676) is 26, by the way. So any value between 0 and 26 (or 0 and -26) will produce a negative value inside the radicand. We can't take a square root of a negative number (unless you don't mind that your solution has complex numbers), so any -26 < b < 26 will give us an equation without real solutions.
Therefore, the least value of b is a value of b greater than -26, but less than 0. Since the question specifies it is an integer, that number is -25.
Its standard practice for math equations involving spectral densities and Fourier transforms to use the testicles character for the independent variable.
Fourier analysis involves measuring the sampled strength of the signal at different points in time. Its also related to ARIMA models. Essentially, you're inspecting how cyclical some data is, and the testies are points in time.
By the way, there is an error in this meme, see the comment left by jjagaimo
The city of R'lyeh is well known for its impressive public transportation network despite complaints about how difficult it is to navigate. At least, its confusing for those constrained to Euclidean geometry.
Not just that, I like how they went with "radical change" instead of "wanton destruction" or "unlawful government restructuring".
NOAA will be dismantled first (or they will be forced to massage these numbers somehow)
Toss a coin to ur ~~witcher~~ climate scientist employed in the public sector providing publically available datasets
These salary numbers are SO OLD. GS5 is like, 40k minimum?
The GS payscale is public data. GS is adjusted every year and each position is adjusted for the cost of living for the area. Each GS rank has "steps" which, most people start at step 1 and get raises based on yearly reviews
Here is the public listing for 2024: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/2024/general-schedule
(Efit: this still isn't much money to become a traitor to your fellow man)
I think that you should keep posting with your signature if it makes you happy. I have some sincere doubts it will force a corporation to exclude your content from any aggregated data, though, nor do I think anyone is giving up their rights by not properly licensing their comments here. Copyright is automatic in the USA. The problem isn't the licensing, its the fact that no court is properly enforcing these rights. And, too few governments have data privacy laws on the books.
I'm not interested in relitigating those points though, I'm sure you've heard them. I guess I'm just typing that up so you know where I'm coming from.
I do think your signature is valuable when it makes people consider who owns their data, and why the CC license is important.
Personally I think you should put an explanation in your bio. I think your message will be served better if you can point to a pre-written explanation (or even an old style FAQ). But, I don't think you're obligated to do so. Its all gravy. People are going to fight you regardless.
Did you see that post from that guy mad about a period character on slashdot? Lmao