Agreed. There are just so many very large prime numbers to pick from. On its own, how does anyone know if some crazy-long number is a DVD decryption code, one of my own RSA keys, or someone got bored and added up all of the luggage combinations at the airport?
OTOH, if I posted a big number and said “this cracks region 2 discs” then the illicit intent is clear.
Suspicious of what?
I think the mods should err on the side of caution. Ban ALL numbers to be safe!
[del]42[/del]
Wasn’t there a member called 666?
Did he get banned because of this thread?
[del]Yet again, the Master knows.[/del]
Actually, in this case, the SDSAB knows:
I suppose this is as good a time as any to introduce my imaginary number to everyone here:
His name is Winslow.
Winslow, say “Hi” to everyone. (Winslow is a little shy, so please excuse his silence.)
Do he get offended if I refer to myself as I?
-I
4 8 15 16 23 42
the numbers are bad… the numbers are bad…
I’m on the “This is silly” bandwagon.
Now, if someone where to post a string of digits that are in fact a coded image of child porn, or some other sort of legal Voodoo, How in the world would the mods even know?
I can see the problem with dancing on the fence in order to push the issue, and can agree with the mods not wanting to even deal with this issue.
Who knows… Some sick bastard may even post binary kitty abuse if this subject isn’t nuked from orbit. It’s the only way to deal with it.
Bitmaps are like a megabyte or more in size. If you post a million digit number with no explanation, then a) I’m not sure you the board software will let you put that many characters in a post and b) the mods will disallow it because it would be gibberish.
So knowing probably isn’t an issue.
Numbers are easy to recognize as problematic. It’s the letters that’ll get ya. Every day, people post huge strings of letters here and no one knows what those might represent (I’m thinking of a recently banned member here).
Just think, all of these letters could just be representations of numbers, which are in turn representations of football games that were recorded with the implied oral consent of the NFL, NOT the express written consent. Oh, the humanity.
That’s true. Practically every person we’ve ever banned here was banned for posting letters.
Is that the same as going postal?
Let’s see. This thread was revived after more than a year, there are 73 posts in it, and STILL the only thing in the entire thread I understand is the post that got MTCicero banned.
njtt, are you seriously arguing that people found with child porn on their computers should not be prosecuted for it? Because that’s the logical implication of your post. You say that it should only be actionable if the information is also present that the binary string is to be interpreted as a JPEG image, or whatever, but how do you think that information is stored? That’s just a number, too.
Yes, for any given bit string, there’s a hypothetical computer which would interpret it as all manner of innocuous things. But those hypothetical computers don’t exist. By contrast, the computers that interpret kiddie porn images as kiddie porn images do exist. And if a bitstring can be interpreted as a kiddie porn image, we can be more certain that that’s exactly what it was intended to be than we can be about almost anything else we think we’re certain about.
NSFW?!?!?
Getting the tattoo was in my job description!
Well, the only reason I looked at the thread in the first place was to see what my namesake had done to earn the bums rush. 
I think the idea is that its not the numbers themselves that are illegal, but the order of them. For example, I can say the words, I, face, you, and punch and those words individually are not illegal or harmful.
If I reorganize them and say “I’m going to punch you in the face” then I have made a threat, which is against the law and against board policy.
At least I think that’s the idea. If I’m banned, then you know I’m wrong. 
Well you can go and 1 2 3 4 yourself 
Of course 7 is illegal (that whole sordid cannibalism thing) and 8 is out since 8 8 is a neo-nazi sign.
I guess 1 is the only safe number, no wonder it’s the loneliest.