[HPFGU-OTChatter] Netspeak question

[Shaun Hately]

On 27 Feb 2004 at 11:38, davewitley wrote:

> Where does the -0r ending come from, e.g. instead of saying 'this 
> sucks', you say 'sux0r' or 'suxx0r'?
> 
> It seems to go against the trend of what might charitably be called 
> bandwidth-enforced brevity, e.g. 'u' for 'you', '4' for 'for', etc.

The thing is - this type of writing - 1337, 133+, or whatever was 
not originally intended to shorten things.

It was actually intended as a code among hackers - being able to 
use the 'language' indicated you knew the scene - that you'd been 
around at least long enough to learn how to talk to talk, and 
therefore might be worthy of being paid attention to. Some also 
regarded it as a code designed to confuse police and similar - but 
really, it wasn't hard enough for that. So some were lengthened 
some were shortened.

As use of cyberspace in its variant forms spread, people started 
using abbreviations, some of those from the old 1337 5p34k wound up 
in more common use - but suxx0r and rox0r and similar still hang 
around despite being longer.

As for where it came from, I can hazard a guess - most hackers (and 
if there are any police reading I had no involvement, I swear, it 
was my friend, he fooled me into giving him access to the school 
system!), had a fairly good knowledge of Boolean logic which used 
terms like AND OR, XOR, etc. We commonly used to write - at least 
among my friends - the term XOR as xOr to emphasise the fact that 
OR was involved in it. If we were doing it, I assume everyone was. 
I can see that being tacked onto words where x appeared because of 
the principle x and Or go together. From there, it's a minor step 
to changing O to 0.

You know when you're a computer security specialist, you know 
what's really scary - it's picking up a book about computer crime 
at the time you were a child, and suddenly recognising your friends 
handles among the names of the people in the book. It gets even 
more terrifying when the handle of the friend you gave unauthorised 
access to the school's systems comes up as having hacked NASA. It 
gets absolutely horrifying when they are described as attending a 
private school in Melbourne, as you and your friend did...
















Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia