Thursday, September 24, 2009

Nerds Gone Wild!


I don't know why but I find myself often saying w00t or calling the inexperienced n00bs. Probably because three of my good friends are nerds. Not your bespeckled uncomfortable anti-social kind of nerds but gamers or technophiles or pop culture vultures who taught me just enough to prove that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. They taught me some l33t.

l33t, 1337 or Leet . . is hack
er "5p34K" for elite. Originating from 31337 "eleet", the UDP port used by Dead Cow Cult, a hacker group, to access Windows 95 using Back Orifice, a notorious hacking program. Or so says Wikipedia, I'm prepared to be challenged by my resident nerds.

Lost yet? 1337 spread within bulletin board systems in the 1980s, where having "elite" status on a BBS allowed a user access to file folders, games, and special chat rooms. One theory is that it was developed to defeat text filters created by BBS or Internet Relay Chat system operators for message boards to discourage the discussion of forbidden topics, like cracking and hacking.

However, creative misspellings and ASCII-art-derived words were also a way to attempt to indicate one was knowledgeable about the culture of computer users. Mistypings such as 'teh' for the . .took over and 1337 took on a life of it's own. Mingled with keyboard code such as "QQ" to indicate 'crying eyes with tears' it's now a language of it's own.

Once the reserve of hackers, crackers, and script kiddies, leet has since entered the mainstream. It is now also used to mock n00bs, newbies, or newcomers, on web sites, or in gaming communities. "I pwned da n00bs". Some consider emoticons and ASCII art, like smiley faces, to be leet, while others maintain that l33t consists of only symbolic word encryption. Totally pwned yet?

More obscure forms of l33t, involving the use of symbol combinations and almost no letters or numbers, continue to be used for its original purpose of encrypted communication. It is also sometimes used as a script language.

One of the hallmarks of l33t is its unique approach to orthography, using substitutions of other characters, letters or otherwise, to represent a letter or letters in a word. For more casual use of l33t, the primary strategy is to use homoglyphs, symbols that closely resemble (to varying degrees) the letters for which they stand.

The symbol chosen is flexible—anything that the reader can make sense of is valid. However, this practice is not extensively used in regular l33t; more often it is seen in situations where the argot (i.e., "secret language") characteristics of the system are required, either to exclude newbies or outsiders in general.

Some examples of l33t include: B1FF and n00b, a term for the stereotypical newbie; the l33t programming language or pwned a mistyping of 'owned' which is often used by gamers. I'm not even going to tell you about 'rape' . . .which certainly doesn't mean what it does in the real world.

Since languages, even silly one's aren't my forte, I sought the assistance of a translator:

CrISPY, D4mi@n AND PAdU4n . . .+hanK j00 pH0r 1NTrODUc1NG mE To 4 L4n9u@93 whICh 1 dON't UNd3Rs+4nd bu+ wh1CH Actu4lLy PeRME4+E$ mY cOnvER$4TION5 A l1+tl3 M0RE thAn 1+ $HOUld. 1 C4N'+ 0p3r@+3 4 con$0LE Bu+ I'D 90 WILd Ph0r A Nerdy t sh1r+ wiTh the l33t$p33k 0n IT . . . r0FLm4COP+3r

So if you're an old fart, non gamer like me and want to impress the nerd in your family . . . have a go at this.

Haha! I'm a nerd gone wild! Total w00tage! Consider yourselves pwned, n00bs!


n0w tr0T AloN9 +o T3h +Hem3 +HUrsD4Y CoNTr18Ut0R$ 4ND 5ee WH4+ 0TH3r nerD5 haV3 90ne w1lD!

OR in plain English:

Now trot along to the Theme Thursday contributors and see what other
Nerds have gone wild!

46 comments:

Mim said...

Good Lord!!!

Jean said...

i wonder who started the word n***. haha. sorry ya i dont say that. hehe..

From me to you, suejean =)

Anonymous said...

Heh, well done. When we get to the bottom of a system issue and it turns out to be a silly user that caused it we refer to it as being an ID 10 T error. Also you forgot 'pron', d'internet's full of it.

Alan Burnett said...

Oh Bugger. I must be getting old. Can't understand a word of it.

Carolina said...

I didn't understand a word (or non-word) of that, but I could actually read and understand that last coded sentence. Proves that language evolves and I'm not a total ID 10 T.

Brian Miller said...

j00 9o+ m4D 5k1ll5 b4iN0.

Brian Miller said...

great take on the theme today. much fun!

Grow Up said...

Somewhat zen-like state required to read that.

California Girl said...

What?????

nice one :)

Tom said...

n0w who's confusing who? wot?! i've gone to calling idiots 'nits' by the way...maybe 'cause they're little irritants. much better than calling them ***(&*)'s and ***-***#'s...wild and crazy stuff here!

Anonymous said...

20m [239t236aseaw480tgtjq[4re50...weegtiotrr..q/o3rlfrlporr.;l;we...ww234r rr35wef'pklj34'iogffgl]p[pp[p[pftrqwe4tr~~!@=__)_=---++0r40o

So there!-LOL! Fun post Baino! But can they field-strip and re-assemble an M-16A1 blindfolded? Hee, hee, heeeeee!

nick said...

Ah well, whatever floats your boat. I'm afraid my boat is still high and dry after reading that. There must have been something in that red dust....

Roy said...

I didn't need the translator to translate yours; it was pretty easy:

Crispy, Damian and Paduan (is this somebody from Padua, Italy, or somebody whose internet persona is a padawan Jedi apprentice?)... Thank you for introducing me to a language which I don't understand but which actually permeates my conversations a little more than it should. I can't operate a console but I'd go wild for a nerdy t-shirt with the leetspeek on it...

That last bit I see ROFLMA and "copter" tagged on the end. Got me on that one.

I can't even begin to translate Subby's comment!

Betsy Brock said...

Leave it to Subby to one-up you! Me...I can't make heads or tails of it. I'm old, along with Alan. ha!

Wild...and weird! hee!

Jay said...

That was fascinating! See, I don't really understand how that is supposed to be illegible to non-nerds because I find leet speak quite easy to translate as I read. But I don't speak it or use it. Funny ...

I cn rd ths sntncs wth ll th vwls mssd t t! I gss t mst b a spcl skll I ws brn with. R smthng. Hw bt y?

Unknown said...

Well it was easy enough to read, but honestly, I'd rather learn to speak Italian! ;-)

Paddy in BA (Quickroute) said...

My sends sms msgs like that - all code and I'm still lost!

Ed & Jeanne said...

The thing I find odd about it is that even Nerds make fun of lesser-nerd newbies. How do these patterns of judgement come to be? This is why we, as a species, will never find true peace. There's always something to group together on and feel superior about. It must be in our genetics...

Jill from Killeny Glen said...

Whoa! I'm glad that is over and ended in English...

Now I have Dain Braimage!

Fun and yes...WILD!

Skip Simpson said...

The scary part, was that I understood 99% of it! (Doing Mr. Bill voice) Noooooooooo! Love your site, and am signing up!

Colette Amelia said...

huh? I am like a wild animal caught in the headlight of the car...You have dazzled me!

amazing! you speak so many foreign languages! Geek and Ozzie!

Bimbimbie said...

And I thought my eyes were still asleep.

QTsupQ

Megan said...

Wow, I thought I knew, but turns out I had no idea! Must go tell Padraig about this post...

Susan at Stony River said...

Aaaauughh!!

QQ

I couldn't keep up with all that techie-ness...I'm SUCH a nooob!

=:-o

(think I proved that by wiping out my own e-mail yesterday!)

e said...

Wow...LoL...

Baino said...

Weird init Mim?

SJ I have no idea but I think my 'nerds' would rather be called Geeks

Haha . . the only one I know is something I suffer from frequently Jay, PEBKAC

I don't pretend to understand it Alan, just fed a few tidbits by the lads.

Thanks Brian .. . I get told off for mixing LOLSPEAK with l33t but yeh, I got some skillz

Grow Up, you've got girls, you won't need to learn it!

Haha . . thanks Cali . . bet your kid's understand it!

The worm is turning Tom. I understood your poem and you don't understand my post! FTW (that's For The Win!)

Subby you just made that up! Nah, I don't reckon they could strip more than a paintball gun.

Tee hee . . keeps me up with the 'in' crowd Nick.

Well done you old hippy! See how marvellous English is, we can stuff around with it and still be understood! ROFLMAO, you know .. l33trs add the 'copter' because there's a Microsoft Sam thing out there "My Roflmaocopter goes 'soi soi soi"

Maybe I should use it to stop that Japanese porn spammer!

OK AV, it's not a very romantic language is it?

Hehe . . my phone isnt even on auto text. I'm useless Quickie.

True VE. The ROFLMAOCOPTER nerds are making fun of the l33t nerds. There is definitely a geeky class system.

Haha . . . Jill, or Brian Damage perhaps?

Good onya Skip!

I so misread the theme. I thought it was Nerds Gone Wild and I've been cursing you all week Colette for such a specific topic! I'm a visual person an just looked at the picture, not the heading. GAH!

Haha . . nice one Annie. Don't QQ now!

Megan, DON'T he'll pull it apart! He's such a nerd

You'll get there Suze . . trust me. I use w00t and n00b and that's about it! I know nuttin'

e, come here and you'll learn something useless at least once a week.

Ronda Laveen said...

I thought I was catching on until I got to Subby's comment. Now my confidence is shot.

Fun post, Baino. Hey! I just picked up a NEW pocket protector today!

laughingwolf said...

can't be bothered by this crap... i can read it, but why would i want to spend time on it?

babysis said...

Thats just plain sad....

Mike said...

Smokin the old crack pipe again, eh? LMAO! I am so confused or either I am really dumb! hahahaha!

Michael said...

Noob? Ha. like that. Yes, you really are a nerd. Wow.

BTw, Baino, you can;t be in the wild if there are any flushing loos in proximity! LOL.

kj said...

good lord is right!

i understood not a word. i skimmed because i couldn't bare it...

:)

River said...

I surprised myself by understanding quite a bit of that, although I wish I knew more. But IRL where would I use it? Everything I do and say is in plain English.

Baino said...

Subby's just making it up as he goes along! What on earth is a Pocket Protector?

Oh who's a grumpy ol wuf today! Told you I totally misread the theme it was "Wild" but the poster on the TT site was "Nerds Gone Wild" doh!

Hehe . . .don't have a QQ now Babysis. Shit I forgot ground coffee!

You're neither Otin. It's another world out there! Crack! Not me, I stick to conventional vices.

Hehe . . pwned da n00bs! mmm (I always feel like singing Crash Test Dummy songs when I see your moniker!

Oh kj, you're such a wordnerd

Yeh River, you can pretty much destroy English and still understand it. No wonder it's the universal language!

Now leave me alone . . I'm trying to find a Friday Fuckwit.

http://howtobecomeacatladywithoutthecats.blogspot.com said...

Closet Nerd! Closet Nerd! *points finger* (Yeah, I'm such a noob!)
Love the wild nerd picture!

padraig said...

If you want to pepper your blog with h4x0r, but don't want to spend time confusing your brain, there are online translators, like this one:

http://www.jayssite.com/stuff/l33t/l33t_translator.html

I always thought l33tsp34K3rz crossed the line from geek to nerd, myself ;)

Unknown said...

I am so happy that I just post photographs. Writing that is too much work.

Baino said...

Alright then CatLady I guess I am a bit of a nerd!

Pat it does a bit. I get it confused with Lolspeak as well . . .silly really

And fine photos they are too Michael!

laughingwolf said...

i'm grumpy when simple things are made complicated by some bozo with egomania tendencies... KISS!

Ces Adorio said...

AAACCCK! Something is terribly wrong. I deciphered it without any difficulty. This is so wrong!

But then again there are some of us who write backwards and read right to left too.

Baino said...

Ah it's a bit of fun. No time to be serious on a Friday! You write backwards and read right to left! I struggle reading left to right!

Dot-Com said...

Ha! While I might be guilty of sometimes substituting letters with numbers, this is definitely not a language known to me!

lettuce said...

ha, excellently good one, and how fascinating.

The cross-over of this into online computer gaming is where its crept into certain sectors of my family - l33t+magic weapons speak...

River said...

A pocket protector is a little plastic pouch that sits in your shirt pocket to prevent staining in case your pens leak.

ashleigh said...

Actually us true hackers never communicate like that.

Its for the people who know little but like to make others think they know much. Script kiddies :)

Yes its become mainstream, like so much jargon. The sooner it goes away again the better. A bit like the habit a few years ago of exclaiming "What the?" at the drop of a monitor.

~goes off the gag in a corner~

Baino said...

Dot I can't even use auto text on my phone!

Well Lettuce it was younglings who introduced me to it in the first place and much w00tage is had

River someone told me . I have nothing to say, I am speechless, without speech

Ash the new more sophisticated ones have taken to mocking l33t with words such as ROFLMAOCOPTER . . making a mockery of what was well . . a mockery. Although I was chuffed to find out that at my place of work, we're about to have an IT 'Penetration Audit' far more fun than l33t!