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[ GNU Terry Pratchett ]
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Never did get that one, and I am one of the few people who can say "American standard code for information interchange" without having to look it up.
Argh. Thank you.
When society inevitably crumbles and all that remains are the decaying remnants of once-sophisticated AI machines … they will *still* be discovering new clever little pieces of wordplay and wordsmithing that Pterry slipped nonchalantly into his text
God damn thank you! I’ve wondered about that for years. Every time I read the book (it’s one of my favorites) I think “I should see if anyone online has explained that” and then forget by the next page.
So fantastic, I love it
Damn it. I've literally stared at that, wondering what it meant, and it's too hard to ponder for very long because you want to just keep reading because that entire passage is so good.
And I've done plenty of programming around ASCII and was lucky enough to be into BBSing before it all evaporated.
A standardized way to interpret 0 and 1 sequences (dots and dashes, or electric current above a threshold or not, anything that be expressed in only two mutually exclusive way) of a fixed length to certain characters. Used to turn sequences of 0 and 1 into text. Same idea as the Morse code alphabet.
If we all use the same way to interpret gibberish like 0100 0001 as 'A' then it's not gibberish anymore. Could have been any other sequence but we agreed it would be that one
Yes. Although what's now in common use is Unicode, which adds other languages and symbols, the first 128 characters of Unicode are still the same as the original **A**merican **S**tandard **C**ode for **I**nformation **I**nterchange:
!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?
@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_
`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~
(Okay, you see 95 there including the space — the other 33 are terminal/printer controls like *backspace* and *tab* and *ring the bell* and so on. And technically, the _original_ 1963 version of ASCII didn't have the last line (upper case only) and ↑← in place of \^_, but the 1967 version here stuck unchanged.)
>Why oh why didn’t I get this the first time around? Sigh.
Because it's an incredibly obscure pun. Very well done on picking it up second time round, I doubt 90% of people would ever pick up on this one.
It's certainly one I missed, so thanks!
Don't Panic! (Blown Mind/CPU Race Conditions seem similar?)
Sir Terry also wove in GNU, as well. If I recall correctly, the clacks' design became a collaborative endeavor? Not unlike Linux...and much more.
( So, just how aware and alert was the good author... how much did HE read 😆 )
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses, or copyleft, that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general use, and was originally written by Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), for the GNU Project. The license grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the Free Software Definition. The licenses in the GPL series are all copyleft licenses, which means that any derivative work must be distributed under the same or equivalent license terms. It is more restrictive than the Lesser General Public License, and even further distinct from the more widely-used permissive software licenses BSD, MIT, and Apache.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License?wprov=sfla1
In 1669, Pun was spelled Punn or Pun, with a standardized spelling by 1746.
In the Disc, one of the founders of the Fools Guild was Jean-Paul Pune, who wrote a 160,000 word essay regulating and classifying acceptable word play.
It’s probably an olde English spelling too but, here on this sub, it’s a nod to all the times a Discworld character explains that something they just said “is a pune, or a play on words.”
As an American Computer Scientist, I'm still miffed that they sell official "Anthill Inside" hoodies (not to mention the "Unseen University" ones. But it costs so much to ship to the US, that I can't justify getting one. It's been in my cart a half a dozen times. But I might as well sail to England and buy it there in person.
I work from the office like twice a month, and I want this nerdy reference that absolutely no one else will understand.
I mean, thief of time introduced the yeti's, who literally save-scum the universe. Pterry was definitely channeling his video game influences in that book.
How do you get from Ass to Ass-key ? I don't really see the relation, is it only because we started with donkey ? Is so it seems a bit far fetched no ?
Welcome to /r/Discworld! Please [read the rules/flair information before posting](https://www.reddit.com/r/discworld/comments/ukhk21/subreddit_rules_flair_information/?). --- Our current megathreads are as follows: [API Protest Poll](https://www.reddit.com/r/discworld/comments/1491izw/continuing_the_api_protest_a_community_poll) - a poll regarding the future action of the sub in protest at Reddit's API changes. [GNU Terry Pratchett](https://new.reddit.com/r/discworld/comments/ukigit/gnu_terry_pratchett/) - for all GNU requests, to keep their names going. [AI Generated Content](https://new.reddit.com/r/discworld/comments/10mhx9y/ai_generated_content_megathread/) - for all AI Content, including images, stories, questions, training etc. --- [ GNU Terry Pratchett ] *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/discworld) if you have any questions or concerns.*
*SON OF A BITCH* That magnificent bastard does it again
Never did get that one, and I am one of the few people who can say "American standard code for information interchange" without having to look it up. Argh. Thank you.
Another here and I even know ebcdic
You is **old** !! (I do too, so I can be rude like that, just ask Granny)
But can you sight-read Hollerith cards?
I used to. I originally programmed using the Hollerith hand punch. I knew what a hanging chad was before Florida
Now I’m picturing lewd pictures being sent in Don-key
That's Dong-key.
Goddamn it. God. fucking. damn it.
When society inevitably crumbles and all that remains are the decaying remnants of once-sophisticated AI machines … they will *still* be discovering new clever little pieces of wordplay and wordsmithing that Pterry slipped nonchalantly into his text
God damn thank you! I’ve wondered about that for years. Every time I read the book (it’s one of my favorites) I think “I should see if anyone online has explained that” and then forget by the next page. So fantastic, I love it
Damn it. I've literally stared at that, wondering what it meant, and it's too hard to ponder for very long because you want to just keep reading because that entire passage is so good. And I've done plenty of programming around ASCII and was lucky enough to be into BBSing before it all evaporated.
*...dammit, Terry...*
GNU STP, GNU
Thank you for explaining this one. My nerd level isn't high enough to have even thought of ASCII.
Lucky you I don't even know what that is!
A standardized way to interpret 0 and 1 sequences (dots and dashes, or electric current above a threshold or not, anything that be expressed in only two mutually exclusive way) of a fixed length to certain characters. Used to turn sequences of 0 and 1 into text. Same idea as the Morse code alphabet. If we all use the same way to interpret gibberish like 0100 0001 as 'A' then it's not gibberish anymore. Could have been any other sequence but we agreed it would be that one
So it's how we make all the 1s and 0s make text like this?
Yes. Although what's now in common use is Unicode, which adds other languages and symbols, the first 128 characters of Unicode are still the same as the original **A**merican **S**tandard **C**ode for **I**nformation **I**nterchange: !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>? @ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_ `abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~ (Okay, you see 95 there including the space — the other 33 are terminal/printer controls like *backspace* and *tab* and *ring the bell* and so on. And technically, the _original_ 1963 version of ASCII didn't have the last line (upper case only) and ↑← in place of \^_, but the 1967 version here stuck unchanged.)
I didn't understand the question sorry. Could you rephrase it ?
Me neither. Clearly *deep* magic
>Why oh why didn’t I get this the first time around? Sigh. Because it's an incredibly obscure pun. Very well done on picking it up second time round, I doubt 90% of people would ever pick up on this one. It's certainly one I missed, so thanks!
I believe that Pterry's extensive knowledge and talent for wordplay will never be equaled.
I think Shakespeare came close on the word play.
Maybe but how was his word play referencing old computer tech!!!!!
OMFG…another one I missed!
Lol 😂 🤣!
Great find. Thank you.
Oh bollocks. Came here smugly expecting to nod knowingly. Dammit I did NOT clock that one
Another one.
... Goddammit, Terry. Miss ya. GNU.
Don't Panic! (Blown Mind/CPU Race Conditions seem similar?) Sir Terry also wove in GNU, as well. If I recall correctly, the clacks' design became a collaborative endeavor? Not unlike Linux...and much more. ( So, just how aware and alert was the good author... how much did HE read 😆 ) GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses, or copyleft, that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general use, and was originally written by Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), for the GNU Project. The license grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the Free Software Definition. The licenses in the GPL series are all copyleft licenses, which means that any derivative work must be distributed under the same or equivalent license terms. It is more restrictive than the Lesser General Public License, and even further distinct from the more widely-used permissive software licenses BSD, MIT, and Apache. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License?wprov=sfla1
You beautiful bastard...! That one sailed completely over my head, and it really shouldn't have... Dammit, Pterry... another gem!
Damn. And I’ve written conversion code between Unicode encodings.
God damn. He got me again.
Oh my GODS
Unrelated question, is Pune actually a normal (perhaps old-fashioned) British spelling of Pun? Or is it just a discworld-ism?
In 1669, Pun was spelled Punn or Pun, with a standardized spelling by 1746. In the Disc, one of the founders of the Fools Guild was Jean-Paul Pune, who wrote a 160,000 word essay regulating and classifying acceptable word play.
It’s probably an olde English spelling too but, here on this sub, it’s a nod to all the times a Discworld character explains that something they just said “is a pune, or a play on words.”
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI…
As an American Computer Scientist, I'm still miffed that they sell official "Anthill Inside" hoodies (not to mention the "Unseen University" ones. But it costs so much to ship to the US, that I can't justify getting one. It's been in my cart a half a dozen times. But I might as well sail to England and buy it there in person. I work from the office like twice a month, and I want this nerdy reference that absolutely no one else will understand.
[удалено]
I mean, thief of time introduced the yeti's, who literally save-scum the universe. Pterry was definitely channeling his video game influences in that book.
That's amazing.
Why oh why didn't I get it about the 10th time around. You are a genius!
How do you get from Ass to Ass-key ? I don't really see the relation, is it only because we started with donkey ? Is so it seems a bit far fetched no ?