Lingo for L337s
A colleague is fond of adding "Woot!" to some of his emails to express a kind of ironic joy or cool endorsement of the sentiment in the email.
How is that for an academic explanation of tech-culture cool factor?
Among many (many) other things, the Internet, computers, gaming, and the whole online culture has spawned a lingo of its own. This isn't unusual. Most groups develop a kind of private lexicon that distinguishes the belongers from the non-belongers - and the better you are at the language, the more you signal how tied in to that group you are.
So, one company I worked for didn't have problems, it had "Challenges." For some reason unknown to me, every meeting was started with "Good morning!" no matter what time of day it was, and with a dirty joke (I'm serious!).
Certain religious groups will talk about "doing Church," and as we all know by now, the language of Wall Street is incomprehensible even to those who work there. But they like it that way.
Many of the terms used in Internetish have their origin in old mainframe computing terms. This world was highly cliquey, and rapidly developed a shorthand language to refer to arcane things most normal people wouldn't have understood even if they had been expressed in regular, everyday language. But just to confuse the issue, programmers drew on a shared love of science fiction and fantasy literature, among other things, to refer to activities and situations relevant to programming. So "deep magic," for example, a term with its origin in C.S. Lewis' Narnia series, refers to "(programming) techniques that are not widely known, and may be deliberately kept secret." (Wikipedia)
In fact, in the 70s (as computer programming became more widely integrated into college campuses) a "jargon file" was created that actually documented these terms. "The Jargon File (hereinafter referred to as "jargon-1" or "the File") was made by Raphael Finkel at Stanford in 1975. From this time until the plug was finally pulled on the SAIL computer in 1991, the File was named "AIWORD.RFUP" or "AIWORD.RFDOC". Some terms, such as frob and some senses of moby, are believed to date back to the early 1960s from the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT. The revisions of jargon-1 were all unnumbered and may be collectively considered "version 1"."
The original file can still be accessed (http://www.dourish.com/goodies/jargon.html).
Some typical entries:
BARF [from the "layman" slang, meaning "vomit"] 1. interj. Term of disgust. See BLETCH. 2. v. Choke, as on input. May mean to give an error message. "The function `=' compares two fixnums or two flonums, and barfs on anything else." 3. BARFULOUS, BARFUCIOUS: adj. Said of something which would make anyone barf, if only for aesthetic reasons.
BOGOSITY n. The degree to which something is BOGUS (q.v.). At CMU, bogosity is measured with a bogometer; typical use: in a seminar, when a speaker says something bogus, a listener might raise his hand and say, "My bogometer just triggered." The agreed-upon unit of bogosity is the microLenat (uL).
CONNECTOR CONSPIRACY [probably came into prominence with the appearance of the KL-10, none of whose connectors match anything else] n. The tendency of manufacturers (or, by extension, programmers or purveyors of anything) to come up with new products which don't fit together with the old stuff, thereby making you buy either all new stuff or expensive interface devices.
CRUFTY [from "cruddy"] adj. 1. Poorly built, possibly overly complex. "This is standard old crufty DEC software". Hence CRUFT, n. shoddy construction. Also CRUFT, v. [from hand cruft, pun on hand craft] to write assembler code for something normally (and better) done by a compiler. 2. Unpleasant, especially to the touch, often with encrusted junk. Like spilled coffee smeared with peanut butter and catsup. Hence CRUFT, n. disgusting mess. 3. Generally unpleasant. CRUFTY or CRUFTIE n. A small crufty object (see FROB); often one which doesn't fit well into the scheme of things. "A LISP property list is a good place to store crufties (or, random cruft)." [Note: Does CRUFT have anything to do with the Cruft Lab at Harvard? I don't know, though I was a Harvard student. - GLS]
The Hacker's Dictionary, or Jargon File, has evolved, and includes terms that reflect the changing times:
angry fruit salad: n.
A bad visual-interface design that uses too many colors. (This term derives, of course, from the bizarre day-glo colors found in canned fruit salad.) Too often one sees similar effects from interface designers using color window systems such as X; there is a tendency to create displays that are flashy and attention-getting but uncomfortable for long-term use.
annoyware: n.
A type of shareware that frequently disrupts normal program operation to display requests for payment to the author in return for the ability to disable the request messages. (Also called nagware) The requests generally require user action to acknowledge the message before normal operation is resumed and are often tied to the most frequently used features of the software. See also careware, charityware, crippleware, freeware, FRS, guiltware, postcardware, and -ware; compare payware.
banner site: n.
[warez d00dz] An FTP site storing pirated files where one must first click on several banners and/or subscribe to various ‘free’ services, usually generating some form of revenues for the site owner, to be able to access the site. More often than not, the username/password painfully obtained by clicking on banners and subscribing to bogus services or mailing lists turns out to be non-working or gives access to a site that always responds busy. See ratio site, leech mode.
So... back to "W00T" (technically, my friend should be writing it that way - W, two 0s, and a T (not "Woot"). Where did this come from?
Chat rooms, and more specifically, chat related to gaming, provided the perfect storm of requirements: a close-knit and definitely cliquey core group; speed of conversation; the possibilities of a keyboard put to creative use.
I remember sitting at my desk, where I work in a wide open space with several people, most of them young, most of them technical. We tend to IM rather than talk, so as not to interrupt the concentration of those around us. I realized at one point that I was listening to some very vehement IM'ing going on at a desk nearby. Tap-tap-tap, taptap, tap - and a big, thumping "SEND." And it dawned on me that an argument was taking place. Timidly, I IM'd: "Are you having a fight?" "LOL," came the response. "Yes."
LOL is a perfect example of the "language" that has evolved out of computer programming, youth and its love of insider lingo, and the online world. When two people are chatting on IM, and one of them wants to let the other know that something is funny, "LOL" is a shorthand way of saying "Laughing out loud." This can be taken to extremes with the ever popular: "ROFLMAO" (rolling on the floor laughing my a** off).
While it actually defeats the purpose of speed, "L337" is another way of actually expressing a whole set of new words that relies upon similarity of symbols - swapping out a 3 for an E, for example, or a 7 for a T. Thus, "L337" is read "Leet," and derives from "elite," which actually refers to something or someone who does something extremely well. So the challenge here is not only to know the letter conversion, but also the terms. N00B is a simple one - "noob" refers to a "newbie," or someone just beginning in a new study. (That would be me.)
Ok, I promised to come back to "W00T," and here we are: "An expression of joy and excitement."
http://media.urbandictionary.com/image/page/w00t-16996.jpg
There is a bit of an argument over where the term originated, however. Some claim that it was a gamer term for "We owned the other team," but this is a little suspect because the whole "owned" term is a bit recent (and is also often expressed as "pwnd."
Other knowledgeable jargonese suggest this: "History: The current-day use of the word w00t stems from hackers in the early to mid 80's. While communicating with each other groups of hackers such as Razor1911 would need lingo which nobody else would be able to understand to express milestones in their hacking. One such milestone was gaining root access, but the term rooted or "gained root access" was easily understood so the term was changed to w00t to help disguise. Because of the difficulty of "rooting" many times the term w00t would be much in a celebratory tone. It later evolved to simply be a celebratory remark rather than a hacking milestone."
Whatever it means, anyone over 30 had best be careful when throwing terms like these around - it's a little like your mom in a mini-skirt.
How is that for an academic explanation of tech-culture cool factor?
Among many (many) other things, the Internet, computers, gaming, and the whole online culture has spawned a lingo of its own. This isn't unusual. Most groups develop a kind of private lexicon that distinguishes the belongers from the non-belongers - and the better you are at the language, the more you signal how tied in to that group you are.
So, one company I worked for didn't have problems, it had "Challenges." For some reason unknown to me, every meeting was started with "Good morning!" no matter what time of day it was, and with a dirty joke (I'm serious!).
Certain religious groups will talk about "doing Church," and as we all know by now, the language of Wall Street is incomprehensible even to those who work there. But they like it that way.
Many of the terms used in Internetish have their origin in old mainframe computing terms. This world was highly cliquey, and rapidly developed a shorthand language to refer to arcane things most normal people wouldn't have understood even if they had been expressed in regular, everyday language. But just to confuse the issue, programmers drew on a shared love of science fiction and fantasy literature, among other things, to refer to activities and situations relevant to programming. So "deep magic," for example, a term with its origin in C.S. Lewis' Narnia series, refers to "(programming) techniques that are not widely known, and may be deliberately kept secret." (Wikipedia)
In fact, in the 70s (as computer programming became more widely integrated into college campuses) a "jargon file" was created that actually documented these terms. "The Jargon File (hereinafter referred to as "jargon-1" or "the File") was made by Raphael Finkel at Stanford in 1975. From this time until the plug was finally pulled on the SAIL computer in 1991, the File was named "AIWORD.RFUP" or "AIWORD.RFDOC". Some terms, such as frob and some senses of moby, are believed to date back to the early 1960s from the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT. The revisions of jargon-1 were all unnumbered and may be collectively considered "version 1"."
The original file can still be accessed (http://www.dourish.com/goodies/jargon.html).
Some typical entries:
BARF [from the "layman" slang, meaning "vomit"] 1. interj. Term of disgust. See BLETCH. 2. v. Choke, as on input. May mean to give an error message. "The function `=' compares two fixnums or two flonums, and barfs on anything else." 3. BARFULOUS, BARFUCIOUS: adj. Said of something which would make anyone barf, if only for aesthetic reasons.
BOGOSITY n. The degree to which something is BOGUS (q.v.). At CMU, bogosity is measured with a bogometer; typical use: in a seminar, when a speaker says something bogus, a listener might raise his hand and say, "My bogometer just triggered." The agreed-upon unit of bogosity is the microLenat (uL).
CONNECTOR CONSPIRACY [probably came into prominence with the appearance of the KL-10, none of whose connectors match anything else] n. The tendency of manufacturers (or, by extension, programmers or purveyors of anything) to come up with new products which don't fit together with the old stuff, thereby making you buy either all new stuff or expensive interface devices.
CRUFTY [from "cruddy"] adj. 1. Poorly built, possibly overly complex. "This is standard old crufty DEC software". Hence CRUFT, n. shoddy construction. Also CRUFT, v. [from hand cruft, pun on hand craft] to write assembler code for something normally (and better) done by a compiler. 2. Unpleasant, especially to the touch, often with encrusted junk. Like spilled coffee smeared with peanut butter and catsup. Hence CRUFT, n. disgusting mess. 3. Generally unpleasant. CRUFTY or CRUFTIE n. A small crufty object (see FROB); often one which doesn't fit well into the scheme of things. "A LISP property list is a good place to store crufties (or, random cruft)." [Note: Does CRUFT have anything to do with the Cruft Lab at Harvard? I don't know, though I was a Harvard student. - GLS]
The Hacker's Dictionary, or Jargon File, has evolved, and includes terms that reflect the changing times:
angry fruit salad: n.
A bad visual-interface design that uses too many colors. (This term derives, of course, from the bizarre day-glo colors found in canned fruit salad.) Too often one sees similar effects from interface designers using color window systems such as X; there is a tendency to create displays that are flashy and attention-getting but uncomfortable for long-term use.
annoyware: n.
A type of shareware that frequently disrupts normal program operation to display requests for payment to the author in return for the ability to disable the request messages. (Also called nagware) The requests generally require user action to acknowledge the message before normal operation is resumed and are often tied to the most frequently used features of the software. See also careware, charityware, crippleware, freeware, FRS, guiltware, postcardware, and -ware; compare payware.
banner site: n.
[warez d00dz] An FTP site storing pirated files where one must first click on several banners and/or subscribe to various ‘free’ services, usually generating some form of revenues for the site owner, to be able to access the site. More often than not, the username/password painfully obtained by clicking on banners and subscribing to bogus services or mailing lists turns out to be non-working or gives access to a site that always responds busy. See ratio site, leech mode.
So... back to "W00T" (technically, my friend should be writing it that way - W, two 0s, and a T (not "Woot"). Where did this come from?
Chat rooms, and more specifically, chat related to gaming, provided the perfect storm of requirements: a close-knit and definitely cliquey core group; speed of conversation; the possibilities of a keyboard put to creative use.
I remember sitting at my desk, where I work in a wide open space with several people, most of them young, most of them technical. We tend to IM rather than talk, so as not to interrupt the concentration of those around us. I realized at one point that I was listening to some very vehement IM'ing going on at a desk nearby. Tap-tap-tap, taptap, tap - and a big, thumping "SEND." And it dawned on me that an argument was taking place. Timidly, I IM'd: "Are you having a fight?" "LOL," came the response. "Yes."
LOL is a perfect example of the "language" that has evolved out of computer programming, youth and its love of insider lingo, and the online world. When two people are chatting on IM, and one of them wants to let the other know that something is funny, "LOL" is a shorthand way of saying "Laughing out loud." This can be taken to extremes with the ever popular: "ROFLMAO" (rolling on the floor laughing my a** off).
While it actually defeats the purpose of speed, "L337" is another way of actually expressing a whole set of new words that relies upon similarity of symbols - swapping out a 3 for an E, for example, or a 7 for a T. Thus, "L337" is read "Leet," and derives from "elite," which actually refers to something or someone who does something extremely well. So the challenge here is not only to know the letter conversion, but also the terms. N00B is a simple one - "noob" refers to a "newbie," or someone just beginning in a new study. (That would be me.)
Ok, I promised to come back to "W00T," and here we are: "An expression of joy and excitement."
http://media.urbandictionary.com/image/page/w00t-16996.jpg
There is a bit of an argument over where the term originated, however. Some claim that it was a gamer term for "We owned the other team," but this is a little suspect because the whole "owned" term is a bit recent (and is also often expressed as "pwnd."
Other knowledgeable jargonese suggest this: "History: The current-day use of the word w00t stems from hackers in the early to mid 80's. While communicating with each other groups of hackers such as Razor1911 would need lingo which nobody else would be able to understand to express milestones in their hacking. One such milestone was gaining root access, but the term rooted or "gained root access" was easily understood so the term was changed to w00t to help disguise. Because of the difficulty of "rooting" many times the term w00t would be much in a celebratory tone. It later evolved to simply be a celebratory remark rather than a hacking milestone."
Whatever it means, anyone over 30 had best be careful when throwing terms like these around - it's a little like your mom in a mini-skirt.
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