Ah, the glorious language of leetspeak. This holy language for number worshipers have finally made its way to the internet in the about three decades ago. What geniuses must these leetspeakers be when they was able to figure out a resemblance between the number and the English alphabets. But of course, not every aphabet can be replaced by the language of leetspeak, but that's ok, no language is perfect! What if about only 10 alphabets can be replaced by numbers? That certainly didn't stop the leetspeakers from using it.
Don't be fooled by the simplicity of the language! It's more than just replacing the alphabets by it's correspond resembled number. Leetspeak comes with word variety! For example: the word his can be translated into h15 or h1$ in leetspeak. For more advanced leetspeak users, the use of symbols are also included! So don't be confused when you see nothing inside a parenthesis. That simply means the alphabet O or the number 0.
So where does Leetspeak originate from? Well, Leet come from an internet BBS (Bulletin Board System) where "elite", an alternate meaning for leet, is a sought after status that allow a user to have access to files, games, and special chat room. That BBS housed many hackers who was rumored to intentionally use leetspeak to conceal their discussions from search engine and non-hackers. This eventually dies down. Leetspeak now serve the purpose of teasing other internet user's poor spelling.
If you too want to be epic and use leetspeak in your comments, I got just the right tool for you! Introducing the leetspeak converter!
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/l/leetspea.htm
N0w u c4n b3 pr0 l1k3 7h053 h4x0r5!
Similar to my previous entry (regarding the point that Barlow made in his novel), it's truly amazing what a toll the internet have on language. I just hope the young minds out there don't submit a school paper with school spelled as 5ch00l.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
The book full of faces
Did Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of facebook, named his website after having tripped and landed his face on a pile of books? Well, tonight, we should unveil the mysteries behind it.
It’s amazing what my best friend Google can do. It appears that ‘facebook’ was an actual book given to freshmen at Harvard University (where Zuckerberg attend and create facebook at). The book contains faces of professors and staff members. This helps the freshmen get acquainted with the personnel at Harvard. Who would’ve thought facebook was really a book full of faces! I always thought facebook originated from a monster whose face is made up of books like the one below.
Not only did Mark Zuckerberg make a popular social networking site, he has also created a great Halloween custom for us! Jim Halpert from The Office has the right spirit!
An easy-to-make costume and a scary one at that too! His face may not be made up of books but he can be equally frightening! Be warned, if you get close to any of these beasts, you may be brain-washed to do their evil schemes! Common symptoms include poking your friends for absolutely no reason at all. Dare you respond by poking back, you should be punished with a combination attack of nudges and pokes at catastrophic speed! Bookface minions also tend to tag photos of you, especially at your … sensitive areas. You certainly don’t want to end up like this guy here!
With the humor aside, though facebook might sound weird at first, I'm pretty sure many of you have grow accustom to the use of the word facebook and it has become an actual word (classified as both a noun and a verb) that we use on a daily basis. Like how Barlow pointed out in his novel Blogging America, the internet can truly transform language. We have just witnessed how the word 'facebook' was added to the English dictionary as a result of the internet.
It’s amazing what my best friend Google can do. It appears that ‘facebook’ was an actual book given to freshmen at Harvard University (where Zuckerberg attend and create facebook at). The book contains faces of professors and staff members. This helps the freshmen get acquainted with the personnel at Harvard. Who would’ve thought facebook was really a book full of faces! I always thought facebook originated from a monster whose face is made up of books like the one below.
Not only did Mark Zuckerberg make a popular social networking site, he has also created a great Halloween custom for us! Jim Halpert from The Office has the right spirit!
Jim Halpert, dressing up as bookface for a Halloween event
An easy-to-make costume and a scary one at that too! His face may not be made up of books but he can be equally frightening! Be warned, if you get close to any of these beasts, you may be brain-washed to do their evil schemes! Common symptoms include poking your friends for absolutely no reason at all. Dare you respond by poking back, you should be punished with a combination attack of nudges and pokes at catastrophic speed! Bookface minions also tend to tag photos of you, especially at your … sensitive areas. You certainly don’t want to end up like this guy here!
With the humor aside, though facebook might sound weird at first, I'm pretty sure many of you have grow accustom to the use of the word facebook and it has become an actual word (classified as both a noun and a verb) that we use on a daily basis. Like how Barlow pointed out in his novel Blogging America, the internet can truly transform language. We have just witnessed how the word 'facebook' was added to the English dictionary as a result of the internet.
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