• @[email protected]
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    433 days ago

    There’s also the birthday paradox to consider - each new file increases the number of potential matches for all files that follow, and also is a potential match for all files that precede it. The total number of ways to match is something close to the square of the number of files.

  • Tarquinn2049
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    253 days ago

    So, I have seen people do this, and I gotta ask… what is the plan?

    Like you are saving the file, implying that you plan on using it again… why make it so hard to figure out which one it was? Especially in this case, where he has done it to enough files all in the same place that he eventually hit the same combo again… like, are there hundreds or thousands of randomly named files in that same folder? Why save them if they will be impossible to find again anyway?

    • @[email protected]
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      3 days ago

      My guess is since they are images the thumbnail is more important as an identifier than the name would be.

    • @[email protected]
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      73 days ago

      I don’t do specifically what OP did, but often I remember things by when better than by name.

      Sorting a folder by last modified/created in descending order generally gets me what I’m looking for pretty quickly

      • @[email protected]
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        13 days ago

        I tend to save things with the name embedded, so “<year>-<month>-<day>_<short-description>” and use the date that’s relevant for the file, not necessarily when it was created (e.g. due date for homework, tax return due date, etc). If I don’t care (e.g. a downloaded image), I just accept whatever the default is.

      • @[email protected]
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        53 days ago

        “doc1”, “doc2”, “doc3frogstudy”, “doc4”

        hmm, the doc is redundant. the number is also redundant, it has date to sort by. 1, 2, and 4 can be whatever.

        • Tarquinn2049
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          13 days ago

          I can see an argument for how it can still be possible to work with that… filing system, but I still don’t get what the upside is, just that it doesn’t have as many downsides as it seems like it should.

          • @[email protected]
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            13 days ago

            I personally have too many random trash notes and files to name them. Maybe it takes 30 seconds, whatever, I’m closing the thing right now. It’s not important anyways, but I’m not gonna purge it all to make anyone else happy with how clean and dead my harddrive is.

        • psychOdelic
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          12 days ago

          I guess so, I used to type gibberish because I wasn’t sure what to name it, but didn’t like it saying “untitled” or “image3.jpg”. “ehixvakg.jpg” has more personality.

    • @[email protected]
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      13 days ago

      some websites will save the file name when you upload a file. it could be done for privacy reasons if you don’t want a website to know how you got a file. this is the best reason i can think of for randomizing file names, but i don’t actually do this in practice. sometimes i’ll just rename the file before uploading if im worried about it. file names are just too useful.

  • BarqsHasBite
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    293 days ago

    You’re probably hitting the same area of your keyboard and roughly the same number (length).