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über-1337 noob-pwnage… w00t!

PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2004 1:04 pm
by Gnaeus Dionysius Draco
Salvete;

Okay, I have a serious question for you all, especially for the internet potatoes among us.

Can you remember the first time you saw the terms '1337', 'w00t' or 'noob' (or any other variant of these terms) being used? Where was it, and who used them? I'm especially interested in the origin of the words 'w00t' and 'noob'.

If you never heard of these words, please mention it as well.

This topic may seem a bit odd here, but I'm posting it for two reasons:
(1) I'm writing a paper for English Linguistics on this topic, and;
(2) this general discussion... anything goes :D

Multas gratias,
Draco

PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2004 1:35 pm
by Tiberius Dionysius Draco
Salve!

First time I ever heard the terms 1337, n00b and w00t was on a gaming forum.

I think noob is just derived from "newbie" and whereas newbie is ok, noob is an annoying newbie.

w00t is just the code for a certain smiley on that board and has the same meaning as woohoo!.

grtz

Ask a Hacker...preferably an old one

PostPosted: Sat Apr 10, 2004 9:51 pm
by Aldus Marius
Salvete amici!

The term "elite" has been in use among Hackerdom for a Very Long Time; The Hacker Dictionary, originally compiled from an MIT Jargon File in the late '50s, includes it, as well as the phrase "a Good Thing", predating Martha Stewart's show by nearly half a century.

The transliterations (1337 for "elite", for instance) are rather more recent; they were in use in the early '90s, but only really began to run rampant after the release of the movie Hackers in 1995. Now you can't get away from them, if you're in any part of 'Netspace frequented by young people. It's gotten to the point where hackers of all ages write to the quarterly 2600 to complain.

It's "1337", btw, because those are the nearest numerical approximations to the word elite-->l-eet-->1337. Those're supposed to be a computer 'l', two EE's (3 is E backwards, you see), and a T (the 7).

Happy etymologizing!

1337 info LOL

PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 6:03 pm
by Anonymous
here this is kinda humorous and it has some cool stuff you might want to look at.....
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/securit ... dtalk.mspx




there yah go... :lol:

PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 9:44 pm
by Iacobulus
All you ever wanted to know about the abhorrent h4xor speak:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet_speak

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 8:41 am
by Q Valerius
I've seen l33t used for years, but this past two years are the first to see w00t or n00b.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 5:44 pm
by Gnaeus Dionysius Draco
Is leet so abhorrent? At any rate, the only usages of it I see are ironic or sarcastic. Or maybe I just don't know enough hardcore internet nerds :p.

Draco

Non-Sarcastic Hackspeak

PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 3:44 am
by Aldus Marius
Ave, mi Draco!

Real Hackers, of course, don't talk like that; they're too busy coding. That said, however, *I* don't much mind 'l337', or 'n00b' either. I was just explaining to Tergestus last night that I don't really possess the "l337 skilz" to be a Garrulus-style Webmaster [tip o' the chaplet to that worthy individual!]...but that maybe such skills weren't what was required this year anyway, just good ol'-fashioned maintenance and housekeeping. I can format content all day...

...Ahh, I didn't mean for this to be a plug. I only mentioned it because it shows that some people really do use 'leet-speak for serious, if nerdly, purposes. >({|:-)

In amicitia et fide,

PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:57 pm
by Gnaeus Dionysius Draco
Salve Mari,

Lately I've heard leetspeak making its way to real conversations. People saying 'lol' out loud are not so uncommon anymore, as is the usage of the word 'noob' or purposely bad English (e.g. 'hey, that's many le good!'). Added comedy value is derived from the fact that 'lol' means 'joke' in Dutch.

Vale!
Draco

LOL = Joke!

PostPosted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:23 pm
by Marius
Ave, mi Draco!

'LOL' is 'joke' in Dutch...? I love it!!! Wonder if ROTFLMAOASTPD means anything, in *any* language?

(In Marian 'leetspeak, of course, it is 'Rolling On The Floor Laughing My [buttbone] Off And Scaring The Puppy-Dogs".)

Related question: Have many of you noticed that hackers have their own punctuation, too? I speak specifically of 'inclusive' vs. 'exclusive' quote-marks. Standard English does it like so:

(material to be quoted) --> Standard English does it like so.

-- Standard English: Marius wrote, "Standard English does it like so."

-- Hackspeak: Marius wrote, "Standard English does it like so".

In the first example, the quote marks enclose the period at the end of the sentence ('inclusive' quote)...I think because it is considered that the quoted material is grammatically only part of a full sentence about Marius writing something. But in the Hackish version, the quoted matter is separated and distinct from anything else in the sentence, including the period ('exclusive' quote).

Why fer...? --Because in computer programming, it is very important to input the code--and only the code--exactly as written. Nothing goes inside the quotes (or parens, or braces, or brackets) that isn't meant to go inside the computer. So what Marius actually said is subconsciously singled out, made a distinct entity...in fact, marked out as "code". 'Nesting', the layering of parentheses and braces and brackets, is also critical. Otherwise...well, you know what happens when you put things in an URL that aren't part of the URL; it's like that!

In nomine Alde Marii (this 'un's my "test" login),