[2012-Jun-15] Why Engineer Couples Shouldn't Have Cat Kids

[Spaceguy5]

Seriously. We engineers don't have feelings. And you can't be a cat mom if you don't have feelings.



SKRAWAWGHHHK! SKREEEGAAAAAAAAAAA......

(I have to admit, it is kinda coot <3)

[shadist]

I'm confused by the assignment of numeric values to AGTC...or more specifically, how did Zach go from that to the value assignments for the entire alphabet? I'd like to know

[Notoday]

Base 4, wooooo.

[CodyMan]

As someone who works in compression, I am deeply troubled by the lack of a prefix-free code. Does GAA mean BAA or Q!?!?!? I'm never going to be able to decode their marriage vows from this mess.

[shdwfeather]

He should have stuck the marriage vows in a non-coding region of the DNA!

[Salacious Schoolmate]

He should have stuck the marriage vows in a non-coding region of the DNA!

God didn't make us with waste DNA, that would be stupid

[Freezie]

Maybe you mean to say geneticists, or molecular biologists, or at least bioengineers?

I'm confused by the assignment of numeric values to AGTC...or more specifically, how did Zach go from that to the value assignments for the entire alphabet? I'd like to know

The AGTC refers to the nuclear bases in your DNA, and you derive the assigned numbers from this sequence to find the letter that they translate into (e.g. GGG = 111 = the letter V). In the end all he's doing is converting the nuclear bases into numbers. You'd think there'd be a problem concerning this kind of coding as this guy says:

As someone who works in compression, I am deeply troubled by the lack of a prefix-free code. Does GAA mean BAA or Q!?!?!? I'm never going to be able to decode their marriage vows from this mess.

I guess the best way would be to place leading 0's with the letters with less than 3 representative digits, e.g. 001 for A, 010 for E, etc.


Today I'll be the ass nitpicking Zach by pointing out that he should be referring to the genetic sequence (in the template strand) rather than the genetic code, which is a fixed "language" that our body uses to read the DNA sequences.

[Salacious Schoolmate]

how does the genetic code work then smartass


how come i got arms

[Franzibald]

He should have stuck the marriage vows in a non-coding region of the DNA!

I seriously registered an account JUST to say this and you beat me to it!

[Sahan]

That's a terrible shame, that is.

[Salacious Schoolmate]

Indeed. Let's have a minute of silence for Franzibald and his dreams.

[ChaoticBrain]

Indeed. Let's have a minute of silence for Franzibald and his dreams.

5.8 hours later...

[Sahan]

O Unfortunate Franzibald!
Such ill-fated tragedy to befall him!
Discoverer of the manner
To salvage comedic disaster

That he subscribed to announce
But Alas, too late!
Bested by none other
Than lowly guest shdwfeather!

We pray for his soul
Wretched, cursed by fate
And never shall be forgotten
The tale of Franzibald's Lament.

[Kaharz]

Bravo Sahan! It almost brought a tear to my eye to hear such a meaningless plight so wonderfully versed.

[soontobeVGS]

Looks like the encoding puts the alphabet into base 4. Start by assigning AGTC=0123, then divide up the alphabet into sets of 4 letters, assign each set A, G, T, C, A, G etc until you run out of letters.

A B C D
00 01 02 03 <= A(0)
E F G H
10 11 12 13 <= G(1)
I J K L
20 21 22 23 <= T(2)
M N O P
30 31 32 33 <= C(3)
Q R S T
100 101 102 103 <= A(0)
U V W X
111 112 113 114 <= G(1)
Y Z
120 121 <= T(2)