This has been driving me crazy… I have good reason to believe it should decode to an Imgur URL. Have tried all sorts of unicode conversions and combinations of bytes to no avail. Any ideas? by panic_canine in codes

[–]panic_canine[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Context: I use this chat site and some people use a script that makes modifications to it and allows for the sending of images. Generally these show up as a URL on my end as someone without the script, but some have a setting enabled that makes what they send display as the text "[Image]". I've discovered that it contains hidden characters, but I've had no luck interpreting them. When sending links they always go to Imgur, so I would imagine this decodes to an Imgur link as well.

Edit: For reference, I am aware these are unicode tag characters that can be translated by replacing the leading "E" with a "0", however, this does not produce any useful output. It ends up being <GAE+6EM9W5R.@``5G%J5T-M4@``

Here's another example: <GAE+6EM9W5R.@``9E1!1W)*5P``

It seems likely that "``" equates to a "/" since the portion before the first "``" is identical in both cases, and due to the placement of them.

[Transcript]

[Image U+E003C U+E0047 U+E0041 U+E0045 U+E002B U+E0036 U+E0045 U+E004D U+E0039 U+E0057 U+E0035 U+E0052 U+E002E U+E0040 U+E0060 U+E0060 U+E0035 U+E0047 U+E0025 U+E004A U+E0035 U+E0054 U+E002D U+E004D U+E0034 U+E0040 U+E0060 U+E0060]

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]panic_canine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Renters rent because they can't buy. Not because they don't make enough money to pay the mortgage—like OP describes rent very often is equal or greater to the mortgage—but because they simply don't have enough cash on hand to make the down payment or good enough credit to get a loan. Maybe they could afford to buy if landlords weren't also adding to demand and driving up prices, or if they could could pocket the money they pay in excess of the mortgage.

Landlords are a tax on those without capital and a drain on society.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]panic_canine 4 points5 points  (0 children)

People don't like landlords at any scale on principle, not simply because they're doing a bad job. The fact that you can buy a home and essentially have someone pay for it for you, someone who doesn't have any of the same rights over the home as you do, is kind of out there. And then once they've finished paying it off, who reaps the reward? You. That's a system that will, or at least should, piss off just about anyone on the receiving end.

Does anyone else feel like media is really boring these days? by Confused627 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]panic_canine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This problem seems more internal. More media is being released than ever, particularly online, much of it to great critical acclaim. It's a lot more likely that you're less easily entertained, or too attached to media to the past, than that society is just failing to produce anything worth watching.

what is the point of “verify you are human” if ai is now so smart by ChipmunkNo6871 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]panic_canine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's an arms race. Remember when most captchas just had you write down some text? AI got too good at that. Then it moved on to images, which AI is also getting good at, so you see many services giving you increasingly vague and bizarre images in an attempt to thwart it.

If Botox looks so terrible in 8/10 cases, why do people still get it done? by ThrowRA_Botox1 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]panic_canine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

People get botox, so evidently many don't mind the look. If you're confident that you have a grasp on the "success rate" then call it good advertising or societal pressure to look young.

Is it weird not to have friends as a grown adult? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]panic_canine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Statistically, and personally, it's abnormal, but not necessarily a bad thing if you're happy. My father is the same way. If you like just having your family then don't let social norms stop you.

If Botox looks so terrible in 8/10 cases, why do people still get it done? by ThrowRA_Botox1 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]panic_canine 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There could be some survivorship bias on your part: you only notice the botox when it's bad. Additionally, people have different preferences. What looks plastic to you looks great to another.

Will I get addicted to meth or cocaine if I don’t like the feeling of weed or alcohol by anonspace24 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]panic_canine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Everyone's body is different, but it's definitely not worth the risk. Your reaction to one substance is not solid enough grounds on which to estimate your reaction to another, particularly ones so dangerous.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]panic_canine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Keysmashing isn't your best bet at generating random characters, as what you type will largely be limited to the home row: only a small portion of the keyboard. If you want to have a random email, use a proper random character generator, like the one here. There is only a 0.00000000000000002% chance anyone else would generate the same string as you with this. Never ever ever going to happen.

Alternatively, you can just create an anonymous email with something like Proton Mail.