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I'm thinking stackoverflow.com llc / inc should buy a brick in the Computer History Museum Wall.

It's for a noble cause -- the CHM is one of my favorite places on the planet, and the money is a non-profit donation in support of their effort to record the history of the computer.

The brick I am looking at is the Terabyte:

The wall will consist of a series of permanent high-tech plaques engraved with your message. Honor your favorite computer pioneer, recall your first technology project, or annotate any technology memory you wish to commemorate in this special area. Each engraved wall plaque will be placed in the newly remodeled entry area of the Museum, ensuring that your reminiscences will be preserved and shared for years to come.

  • Name: Terabyte
  • Price: $5000
  • Description: 8" x 8" Plaque
  • Max Lines of Text: 6
  • Max Characters per Line: 18
  • Company logo or Stock Symbol available

So, then, the question: what should our CHM plaque say?

Completed, selection made public, and payment confirmed with the Museum: Our Brick in the Computer History Museum Wall. Now we wait for October to see it live!

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13
  • 17
    If you can put the APL character set on a brick, I bet you could reimplement SO in APL and it'd fit on that brick....
    – Earlz
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 3:29
  • 2
    Have you verified that both the 108 characters and the logo can be accommodated? Or will someone need to do a graphic that includes the logo and some text (then the character limit may be different - higher or lower - depending on the resolution of the engraving technology)? Is there additional cost for the logo?
    – Dennis Williamson
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 11:13
  • 20
    I think the museum should donate this brick to you because 17,210 meta users are going to visit the museum just to see this brick.
    – Robert Cartaino
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 18:13
  • 7
    I took me five answers to realize that the first row of numbers were only coordinates, not actual text for the brick.
    – Daniel Daranas
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 23:05
  • 1
    I can think of one company that would be so much happier if their brick could hold seven lines of 20 characters.
    – Dennis Williamson
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 23:29
  • @Dennis - and that would be... ?
    – uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
    Commented Apr 19, 2010 at 0:19
  • It might be just me, but it feels kinda like buying your own hand print tile at the walk of fame.
    – Toad
    Commented Apr 19, 2010 at 6:11
  • 1
    @George: If you do the math, the result might have a familiar ring to it.
    – Dennis Williamson
    Commented Apr 19, 2010 at 6:14
  • 5
    I really can't read a question with the words "brick in the (...) wall" without having that same song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
    – Gnoupi
    Commented Apr 19, 2010 at 14:15
  • 1
    @Dennis - ah. I get it now. :)
    – uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
    Commented Apr 19, 2010 at 17:14
  • The museum doesn't twit
    – SztupY
    Commented Apr 20, 2010 at 18:56
  • 5
    Whatever the answer, I think it should include the 123456789012345678 numbers on it.. even if we lose a column and a row. And it must be monospaced font.
    – glasnt
    Commented Apr 20, 2010 at 22:49
  • Why nobody ever thought of Bricky Tables? '); DROP TABLE bricks;-- (in two lines, obviously). Oh I see, historical incongruence.
    – Francisco Presencia
    Commented Jan 25, 2014 at 20:13

99 Answers 99

Reset to default
1
2
3 4
9

As an extension of Jason's answer:

  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 My name is
3 Jeff Atwood.
4 I built this site.
5 It took me six to
6 eight weeks.
Improve this answer
2
  • And there I thought it would take only a weekend...
    – Gnoupi
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 9:56
  • Why not just And on the eigth week - He rested , s/-/\n/ because comments won't let me.
    – user50049
    Commented Apr 18, 2010 at 3:50
9

This just came to mind:

 123456789012345678
1  Our collective
2 attempt at being
3      funny
4   ended up in
5    a museum.
6 stackoverflow.com
Improve this answer
1
  • Meta-meta-meta brick
    – Earlz
    Commented May 4, 2010 at 18:06
8 
  123456789012345678
0 This brick just
1 holds up a wall.
2 StackOverflow.com
3 holds up the
4 entire community  
5 of developers
Improve this answer
2
  • Oops. That's 7 lines!
    – Bill
    Commented Apr 19, 2010 at 4:03
  • @Bill Haha, oops. Didn't even realize it.
    – jjnguy
    Commented Apr 19, 2010 at 4:27
7 
  123456789012345678
1 My name is
2 Jeff Atwood.
3 I built this site.
4 In case you forgot
5 my name, again, is
6 Jeff Atwood.
Improve this answer
2
  • 7
    That can't be from the real Jeff; you're missing any mention of [status-bydesign].
    – Ether
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 0:11
  • That name again is Mr. Plow!
    – Michael Pryor
    Commented Apr 23, 2010 at 17:48
7 
      123456789012345678
    1 Honoring
    2 stackoverflow.com
    3 who improved how 
    4 experts exchange 
    5 information. It's
    6 rockhardawesome!
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2
  • 1
    I'm so tempted to stick a hyphen in there...
    – that one guy
    Commented Apr 18, 2010 at 1:07
  • 1
    @that one guy: Hyphen? I'm tempted to put "experts" in quotes :)
    – Billy ONeal
    Commented Apr 27, 2010 at 2:43
7

Credit to @Cobbal

  123456789012345678
1 
2    plz-send-teh 
3        brickz
4 
5 stackoverflow.com
6
Improve this answer
7 
  123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2 Our humble attempt
3 to improve the way
4 developers create
5 software for the
6 rest of us.

It's a museum, especially one that is highly respected. I think humbleness helps to show respect to the museum and its cause and also to get back some respect in 10, 20 or 50 years.

Improve this answer
6 
  123456789012345678
1 StackOverflow.com
2 This brick would
3 have been
4 voted up if it had
5 free-hand circles.
6 [status-rejected]
Improve this answer
6 
   123456789012345678
1  If we have made
2  software better,
3  it is by standing
4  on the shoulders
5  of giants.
6  stackoverflow.com
Improve this answer
5

Or if you'd like to throw a philosophical in-joke in...

 it took a bit, but
 we learned the 
 important things
 aren't answers,
 but questions.
  stackoverflow.com
Improve this answer
3
  • 6
    Except that this is incorrect.
    – L. Cornelius Dol
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 7:01
  • 5
    [subjective-and-argumentative]. Some would argue the important things aren't questions, but Unicorns... :)
    – Sampson
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 13:17
  • 4
    Tell that to the users who lost half of the rep gained from asking questions....
    – Michael Kniskern
    Commented Apr 19, 2010 at 20:41
5 
  123456789012345678
1     Badges?
2 We don't need no
3    steenkin'
4     badges!
5 
6 stackoverflow.com
Improve this answer
5

 

 123456789012345678
1 I am Jeff Atwood
2   I like computers
3 I am Joel Spolsky
4   I like jam

Improve this answer
5 
 123456789012345678
1 int main(void) {
2     main();
3 } 
4      Dot com
5     Was  here 
6       2010

Possibly not language agnostic enough for the whole community, though.

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4

stackoverflow.com

No hyphens needed

Improve this answer
4 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2
3   Answered 2009
4
5     Great Brick
6   Community Wiki
Improve this answer
4 
  123456789012345678
0 Stackoverflow.com
1 From the people
2 who write code for
3 these computers:
4 Thank you for 
5 preserving our
6 history and legacy
Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    Too many blocks seem like advertisements for stackoverflow. I'd like to see the block look like a true gift of appreciation for the work that CHM is undertaking.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Apr 18, 2010 at 20:56
  • Nice thought, but this could easily be interpreted the opposite way. That is, developers thanking SO for preserving their old questions and answers.
    – Pops
    Commented May 4, 2010 at 18:12
3 
stackoverflow: 
please don't use 
phpBB for question 
and answer sites
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2
  • 1
    s/stackoverflow/stack exchange
    – Earlz
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 3:36
  • s/stackoverflow/Stack Overflow/ (or s/stackoverflow/StackExchange/)
    – Arjan
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 12:15
3 
  123456789012345678
1
2 stackoverflow.com
3
4  we have waffles
5
6
Improve this answer
3 
  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 fast
3      free
4           answers
5 run by:
6      the community
Improve this answer
2
3

An obvious (but not serious) response.

  123456789012345678

1 stackoverflow.com
2
3 just another
4  brick in the wall
5
6
Improve this answer
3 
      123456789012345678
    1 StackOverflow.com:
    2 A programming
    3 community exploit.
    4 Founded by Joel
    5 Spolsky and Jeff
    6 Atwood July 2008
Improve this answer
3 
  123456789012345678
0 +1 Why click on
1 stackoverflow.com
2    not working ?
3 
4 +30 Because we are
5   on a brick
Improve this answer
2 
      ╲ │      
   ╲-  ╲ │ stack         
     ╲- ╲   over        
 │ ---_╲_ │  flow        
 │ ______ │   .com
 └────────┘
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2

Similar to my other brick suggestion but with the Stack Exchange mission spiced up to be specific for Stack Overflow.

  123456789012345678
1 stackoverflow.com
2 Make the Internet
3 a better place to
4 get expert answers
5 to your program-
6 ming questions
Improve this answer
2 
  123456789012345678
1 def StackOverflow
2   ask_questions
3   give_answers
4   profit!
5   buy_brick
6 end

Valid Ruby code :)

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1
  • 3
    +1 even though I'm somewhat of a Python lover and Ruby hater.
    – Tyler
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 3:52
2

Text 

No matter what 
future holds,
We were the first
that worked
stackoverflow.com
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1 

  Computer Science 
  is no more about
   computers than
    astronomy is 
   about telescopes
          -Dijkstra
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2
  • 2
    it's a great quote, but it's more about computer science than it is about programming - i.e. you can't really replace "computer science" in the quote with "programming"
    – Kyle Cronin
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 0:33
  • 3
    Agree with Kyle. Good quote, but not for this purpose.
    – Andrew Ensley
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 1:17
1 
 123456789012345678
1                  
2                  
3  plaque coming   
4  in 6-8 weeks    
5                  
6

or

 123456789012345678
1                  
2 the plaque will  
3 be ready in      
4 in 6-8 weeks     
5                  
6
Improve this answer
2
  • [status-planned]
    – Earlz
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 7:47
  • 2
    this is more about Jeff Atwood than it is about SO
    – juan
    Commented Apr 17, 2010 at 15:15
1

Boy am I late to the party -- shows me for having a life on Friday night! :)

  123456789012345678
1 If you grok
2 Ponies and waffles
3 plz-send-teh-codez
4 & status-declined
5 You belong on
6 stackoverflow.com
Improve this answer
1

Some of those (ugly!) official examples certainly don't play by the 18-character rule:

123456789012345678            123456789012345678            123456789012345678 
"GOOGLE," a play on           Batman Arkham Asylum          A. Chang has
the word "googol,"            My best gaming                1 Terabyte of digital
the mathematical              addiction - B. Collins        storage..... You?
term for a 1 followed
by 100 zeros.

Maybe the rules aren't that strict? $46 per character is quite a lot of money, and I assume the CHM wants things to look nice too...

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1
2
3 4

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