September 21, 2024 at 12:00 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item etaoin shrdlu
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
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September 21, 2024 at 8:22 am
The all-to-common “File Save” icon in even “modern” cloud-based web applications: an image of a 3.5 inch floppy disk.
September 21, 2024 at 8:23 am
The all-to-common “File Save” icon in even “modern” cloud-based web applications: an image of a 3.5-inch floppy disk.
September 21, 2024 at 12:34 pm
Producing a Year-2100-problem by setting 31.12.2099 as default valid_to date. Ensures the job for my great-grandkids or their AI.
God is real, unless declared integer.
September 21, 2024 at 11:49 pm
I first heard of Etaoin Shrdlu when "he" appeared as a character in "The Black Hole Travel Agency" by Jack McKinney. In the author's note, Jack explained how he'd picked "Etaoin Shrdlu" as his main character. I'd thought it was brilliant until I'd read more on the history of Etaoin Shrdlu and found out that it was from linotype and not from a particularly clever author. Nonetheless, it's still fun to recall than name to help me with crossword puzzles and the like because the 12 most common characters are going to show up frequently in puzzles.
I agree with the 3.5" floppy as the Save button as a legacy item that constantly shows up which youngsters have no clue what it means. I also see the gesture for phone call as a legacy gesture since the demise of landlines means we no longer have these large handsets for phones but rather have these flat rectangles called cell phones, which are held differently than the old landline phones were held.
September 23, 2024 at 1:42 pm
You beat me to to use of phone iconography. It's not just cell phones though. We have "desk phones" in the form of VOIP on our PCs. There's no handset there, either; it's either headphone with mic, or PC speakers and built in microphone. My headset has inline switches, one of which is the handset symbol that I could use to answer and end calls (i.e., pick up the phone and hang up the phone).
September 23, 2024 at 1:48 pm
You beat me to to use of phone iconography. It's not just cell phones though. We have "desk phones" in the form of VOIP on our PCs. There's no handset there, either; it's either headphone with mic, or PC speakers and built in microphone. My headset has inline switches, one of which is the handset symbol that I could use to answer and end calls (i.e., pick up the phone and hang up the phone).
I recently had to purchase a networked phone and hook it up to the internet as part of support for emergency communications (backup, secondary mechanism). It's weird to see it on the desk, let alone actually use it.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
September 23, 2024 at 6:06 pm
Historians in the future, who look at archival copies of today's "news" websites, will laugh at all the stupid memes and click bait ads appearing in the margins. Also, what's up with the emojis and sh!t posts in the comments section ?
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
September 23, 2024 at 6:13 pm
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..."
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February 21, 2025 at 3:34 am
My dad was a Mergenthaler Lin-O-Type operator. He set type for decades. I learned about etaoin shrdlu from him probably more than 70 years ago.
He had a favorite trick when folks showed up and annoyed him. He would set as bar of type, take the slug out of the slot and hand to to the person offending. His fingers were so conditioned to handling hot slugs that he could actually pick up red coals from fireplace fire without burning himself. He delighted in watching the recipients of his treatment react. Invariably they would detect the heat and juggle the slug from hand to hand. They wouldn't throw it on the ground, mistakenly thinking that it was of such value that it shouldn't be damaged. Anything coming out of such a whizzing whirring spinning lifting and clanging machine was BOUND to be expensive, right?
I still have a short slug with my name set in it with a penny from the year I was born hammered into the slug.
Thanks for the memories.
Be kind. Be calm. Be generous. Behave.
February 21, 2025 at 1:31 pm
My dad was a Mergenthaler Lin-O-Type operator. He set type for decades. I learned about etaoin shrdlu from him probably more than 70 years ago.
He had a favorite trick when folks showed up and annoyed him. He would set as bar of type, take the slug out of the slot and hand to to the person offending. His fingers were so conditioned to handling hot slugs that he could actually pick up red coals from fireplace fire without burning himself. He delighted in watching the recipients of his treatment react. Invariably they would detect the heat and juggle the slug from hand to hand. They wouldn't throw it on the ground, mistakenly thinking that it was of such value that it shouldn't be damaged. Anything coming out of such a whizzing whirring spinning lifting and clanging machine was BOUND to be expensive, right?
I still have a short slug with my name set in it with a penny from the year I was born hammered into the slug.
Thanks for the memories.
Thanks for sharing that.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
February 21, 2025 at 3:49 pm
The reason those letters were in those locations is due to letter frequency in English, putting the most frequently used letters on the left in descending order. Current frequency lists are slightly different and vary depending on the list source. This is almost completely opposite of the arrangement of letters on a keyboard, which was driven by the need to prevent conflicts between type arms on early typewriters.
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