| It's hard not to hear chat expressions like "1337",
"w00t", and countless other one-word
catch phrases frequently used on message boards
or in chat rooms. This dialect is of today's
newest standard in communication - the computer.
Our guide is made to make aware, entertain,
and lastly educate a little about Internet slang.
The first
thing I want to address is the common misconception
that this sort of chat form has origin from
the hacking community. This is not only a
guess, it's most definitely the truth. Hackers,
or "hax0rs", indefinitely really
should not be the credited creators. No, this
kind of language has basically evolved through
the popular chat program IRC and message boards
such as Deja. This form is most certainly
for the common "hacker", or people
that like to frequent virtual chats. How this
error was made brings us to the definition
of a hacker.
Today's understanding
of hackers generally is of a negaitve connoation.
"They are mischeivous criminals that
break into computers nationwide for their
own personal gain." This cannot be further
from the actual truth. Hackers are people
well educated about computers and its software
that try to make security tighter for everyone's
own benefit. But that doesn't write off ALL
of these h4x0rs to be dedicated to that of
good. The ones you picture running Unix in
a dark, dimmed room while scanning for open
ports inside of servers to fullfil their own
benefits ruin the reputation for the overall
scene.
Now to the
lesson: There are quite a few invented words
used but I'll try to cover the basics of the
most used phrases.
aol
lamer = AOL is often calls themselves the easiest, and therefore,
the best ISP. I agree it is the best..for
whom it's trying to advertise to: People with
no absolutely no knowledge about computers
at all and really have no desire to learn
any time soon. Everyone else ,that is at least
interested in exploring the net more thoroughly,
are confined to AOL's fundamentalistic, basic
controls that prohibit much freedom. The best
term for its service: it's a fake ISP.
warez
= It's not like a "ware" (pornographic magazine),
warez are dealing with illegally copied versions
of copyrighted software that are uploaded
and then traded among others a la FTP servers
or webspace.
phreak
= AKA "freak." It's just that. But there's also the
verb "phreaking", that is most commonly
attributed to "phone phreaking"
or screwing with telephones to make free calls
and edit settings.
w00t
= Synonyms: "yippee!", "yay!", or "hooray!"
SoW
= Associated from within RPG games like Everquest, it's an
acroynm for "Spirt of Wolf" which
means something to make you travel more quickly
than without SoW.
uber
= Actually this word is from latin origin, it means something
all great, awesome, god-like.
The last lesson, and also
the most fun, deals with a play on words and
numbers code. It's actually very simple to
learn and after trying them out in a chat
a couple of times, you too will be a member
of the 1337! I thought it would be confusing
to try to explain the process exactly in paragraph
form so I created a chart. Just change the
following letters to the corresponding number.
That's it! And after some practice, you'll
have it down pat. Try decoding my message
below. ( Some Exceptions: "1337"=elite,
"h4x0r"=hacker, "j00"=you,
"d00d"=dude, "d4"=the)
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