2007-04-04 Do I Look Intelligent?

Since I was a kid, people told me how smart I am, even people who barely knew me. Although I must admit that I'm a little brighter than an average person (not much, though), I believe it was the other way round. They didn't say I'm intelligent because I was, but I was because they said it. Like some kind of positive feedback. It's a known fact that smart kids who are baselessly discouraged by their teachers get worse marks than less smart kids that are complimented baselessly. I think the effect can be reversed. All things considered, I'm not blessed with an intelligent brain, but with an intelligent face. The rest came naturally and I'm grateful. Being a computer scientists, I got to know some really intelligent guys. The kind that learns new stuff today and knows more about it tomorrow than their teachers ever will. And even they treat me like an equal. It's flattering.
This brings up another question, of course: How do you look intelligent? I don't have a clue. Now how intelligent is that? People always say that inner values are more important than how you look. But in all honesty, most people prefer to hang out with an attractive member of the other sex instead of having interesting conversations with less attractive people, don't they?

I just read the above paragraph again -- I really tried to be matter-of-factly about the whole intelligence business -- it still sounds arrogant. In real life I'm not arrogant. A little sarcastic maybe, with an evil sense of humor, but not really arrogant. I'm far too intelligent for arrogance ;-)

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Do you speak C++?
Here's a little C++ program that prints its own code:

char*s="char*s=%c%s%c;main(){printf(s,34,s,34);}";
main(){printf(s,34,s,34);}

Programs that print their own code are called signature programs by the way. There are tons of them out there. And while we're at it, here is another little piece of code that utilizes Hitchhiker Mathematics:

#define SIX 1+5
#define NINE 8+1
void main(){
   printf( "What you get if you multiply %d by %d: %d\n", SIX, NINE, SIX * NINE );
}

Google the answer to life, the universe and everything for more details ;-)

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Addendum:
Diving training can be very exhausting, but it's great. There are two good things about it in particular: Firstly, it answers the age-old question if one can sweat under water. The answer is yes. It's in fact very easy. Secondly, if you meet a nice girl, you don't have to imagine her in a bikini, because most likely she's currently wearing one. So much for the interesting conversations. (Didn't happen, I was just theorizing.)