Proper use cases for Android UserManager.isUserAGoat() | Hacker News Reader

Proper use cases for Android UserManager.isUserAGoat()

stackoverflow.com

113 pointssurine19 comments

This reminds me of the "isUserAMonkey" thread: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7792123/strange-function-...

That turned out to refer to automated testing harnesses as opposed to live users (see: http://developer.android.com/tools/help/monkey.html). Unfortunately, http://developer.android.com/tools/help/goat.html 404s.

The Android API is known for lots of little hidden references and Google jokes. The SensorManager for example has a bunch (i.e., GRAVITY_DEATH_STAR_I and SENSOR_TRICORDER: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/Sens...).

According to the Chrome team, the "Goats Teleported" reference in Chrome is just a random number: http://www.quora.com/Google-Chrome/How-is-the-number-for-Goa...

So, it appears that isUserAGoat is most likely just an engineering joke that shipped.

The code responsible for enumerating goat teleportation (on very low contrast page): http://100-geek.net/articles/goats_teleported

kNuthMagicNumber?

Looks like golden ratio (phi, about 1.618) * 2^30. Maybe something to do with Knuth's Surreal Numbers? (http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/sn.html)

Maybe the answer to this question sheds some light on that: http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/9639/how-did-knu...

One thing this page noticed that I hadn't previously was the comment // See design doc at http://go/at-teleporter for more information.

I believe that's a Google intranet page, and so this story is left hanging for the non-Googlers among us.

"LIKE_TRANSACTION", "TWEET_TRANSACTION", on the lowlevel IBinder RPC interface in Android also made me laugh a bit: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/IBinder.ht... . "There is no response returned and nothing about the system will be functionally affected by it, but it will improve the app's self-esteem.".

Well, the number in chrome is kinda random (not really), but there is a story behind why someone added "goats teleported". That wasn't just randomly chosen, it's from a joke that dates back to 2006.

Naming an automated GUI tester a monkey could be a reference to the original Mac: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Monkey_Lives.txt

(IIRC, the original Mac also had an area of memory called "MickeyBytes" that stored the current mouse acceleration settings)

Or it could be a Chinese Zodiac sign thing? There are 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac, each representing a year in a 12 year cycle. Goat and Monkey are two of them. I'm a Tiger, which means I am either 2,14,26,38,50,62,74,86 or 98 years old.

You all laugh, but when I finally build my new app GrssTrckr (track the amount of grass you eat + social integration) this will be super handy.

Returns True on LL Cool J's phone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.O.A.T.

So I've created a shim for iOS. You play a gentle, low sound, not unlike goats bleating. Then you check the accelerometer[1][2] for the unique pattern of sound waves rebounding from the hairs of theuser's beard. (Remember, the iOS accelerometer is amazingly accurate. This technique really works!)

If you're interested, drop me a line at 1.800.GOAT.API and I will license my patent for your app.

[1] Cf. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13248493/detect-ipad-mini... [2] Also relevant: http://xkcd.com/378/

in every app I've written since 2008, I've added an interface named "ICanHazCheezburger", it has a single property "CanHazCheezburger". I don't actually have any classes that implement it, it is just a nice little easter egg for the next dev that works on the code :)

Using Chrome 25.0.1323.1 dev-m and I don't see Goats Teleported. Anyone else?

@shocks: you only get this on certain OSes; it seems this is on *nix systems, but the teleporters are currently unable to get through gates / into windows.

So, uh... What happens if the goat counter overflows?

It can't

http://git.chromium.org/gitweb/?p=chromium.git;a=blob;f=chro...

(link found on some other page, can't remember where)

Looking for a polyfill - anyone?

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