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SONAIS 157 - Friday, April 11, 2025 
References: “no-break spaces”: strip 147; Unicode equivalence, NFKC.
Of course, tools like Pylint will catch shenanigans like these.
Of course, tools like Pylint will catch shenanigans like these.
Zhang: Wanna bet for a beer you will be wrong about what this bit of Python code will do?
Max: May I scan for no-break spaces and zero-width joiners first?
Zhang: No need: there are none, I promise.
Max: OK, then…
We see a simple method definition: “def poc1(): return "OK"”, followed by an invocation: “print(poc1()),” but program output reads: “Gotcha.”
Max: Seems trivial, this ‘poc1()’ method should just return “OK”… but it will not, right?
Zhang: Indeed, it prints: “gotcha.”
Max: Wait a minute… there's more code! Let me scroll up!
Max: Another ‘poc1()’ definition? How can it not be overridden? Hmm, that is not a ‘c,’ is it? Is it a Cyrillic ‘es’?
Zhang: You got me. This did take me some effort, they already foresaw this and imposed NFKC normalization on identifiers. However, because the Cyrillic letters represent something totally different, ‘c’ and ‘es’ cannot be treated equal.
Max: No beer for you!
Zhang: How about we just buy each other a beer then?
Max: Very acceptable… with 2 Roman ‘c’ characters, that is.
Max: May I scan for no-break spaces and zero-width joiners first?
Zhang: No need: there are none, I promise.
Max: OK, then…
We see a simple method definition: “def poc1(): return "OK"”, followed by an invocation: “print(poc1()),” but program output reads: “Gotcha.”
Max: Seems trivial, this ‘poc1()’ method should just return “OK”… but it will not, right?
Zhang: Indeed, it prints: “gotcha.”
Max: Wait a minute… there's more code! Let me scroll up!
Max: Another ‘poc1()’ definition? How can it not be overridden? Hmm, that is not a ‘c,’ is it? Is it a Cyrillic ‘es’?
Zhang: You got me. This did take me some effort, they already foresaw this and imposed NFKC normalization on identifiers. However, because the Cyrillic letters represent something totally different, ‘c’ and ‘es’ cannot be treated equal.
Max: No beer for you!
Zhang: How about we just buy each other a beer then?
Max: Very acceptable… with 2 Roman ‘c’ characters, that is.
Story arc: The Future Is Now
SONAIS 158 - Tuesday, April 15, 2025 
References: ‘rescued’ machine: strip 139
Setting: the workshop.
Alana: Has the machine you ‘rescued’ from the Quantuple office revealed any secrets, Heidi?
Heidi: As a matter of fact: yes, but things get weirder and weirder.
Alana: After what we recently found out about this guy, weird has certainly become the new normal.
Heidi: This machine seems to connect wirelessly to somewhere… or maybe I should say sometime.
Alana: What do you mean? Some kind of time machine?
Heidi: Well, sort of, but then only for information. It must somehow be exploiting quantum entanglement.
Alana: The name of the company was Quantuple after all… are we talking past or future here, or both?
Heidi: Future, it seems, and a specific moment in time, which is consistent with the entanglement theory. Apparently this machine is one half of a whole, the other of which is somewhere in the future.
Alana: I think I'm again approaching risk of head explosion…
Alana: Has the machine you ‘rescued’ from the Quantuple office revealed any secrets, Heidi?
Heidi: As a matter of fact: yes, but things get weirder and weirder.
Alana: After what we recently found out about this guy, weird has certainly become the new normal.
Heidi: This machine seems to connect wirelessly to somewhere… or maybe I should say sometime.
Alana: What do you mean? Some kind of time machine?
Heidi: Well, sort of, but then only for information. It must somehow be exploiting quantum entanglement.
Alana: The name of the company was Quantuple after all… are we talking past or future here, or both?
Heidi: Future, it seems, and a specific moment in time, which is consistent with the entanglement theory. Apparently this machine is one half of a whole, the other of which is somewhere in the future.
Alana: I think I'm again approaching risk of head explosion…
Story arc: The Future Is Now
SONAIS 159 - Friday, April 18, 2025 
Max: So, this is some kind of WiFi router to the future? Can we predict stock market trends?
Heidi: Alas, it is restricted to one point in time, although I can not pinpoint it. I also have little control over the information it streams, as if the flow is controlled mostly from the other end.
Max: Say… if this links to the future… could it be how the Quantuple guy got the advanced technology?
Heidi: Interesting theory. But how then did the link get established for the first time?
Max: Hm, chicken and egg problem. Speaking of which, do you have any dinner plans?
Heidi blushes.
Heidi: Ehh… I am on sort of a diet.
Max: Oh well… another time then?
Heidi: Yeah.
OIB-A271: To be fair, that wasn't totally worthless. But your dating skills still need a lot of work.
Max: Oh, shut up, you.
Heidi: Alas, it is restricted to one point in time, although I can not pinpoint it. I also have little control over the information it streams, as if the flow is controlled mostly from the other end.
Max: Say… if this links to the future… could it be how the Quantuple guy got the advanced technology?
Heidi: Interesting theory. But how then did the link get established for the first time?
Max: Hm, chicken and egg problem. Speaking of which, do you have any dinner plans?
Heidi blushes.
Heidi: Ehh… I am on sort of a diet.
Max: Oh well… another time then?
Heidi: Yeah.
OIB-A271: To be fair, that wasn't totally worthless. But your dating skills still need a lot of work.
Max: Oh, shut up, you.
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