Two9A

I’ve actually written exactly that before, when I needed to check the lowest bit in an SQL dialect with no bitwise operators. It was disgusting and awesome.

There’s a short story (more of a novella) by Stephen Baxter on this exact topic, for what it’s worth. Touching Centauri: https://www.e-reading.mobi/chapter.php/1035265/30/stephen-baxter-phase-space.html

Would you happen to be willing to throw work to random out-of-work devs who aren’t in your city? I may know a couple over here in England…

He/she is an interesting special case, as Mandarin didn’t really have those as separate concepts until they were imported from Western languages; even now, they’re pronounced the same. So I can understand your friend’s confusion.